


In the Claws of a Scorpion

by Zxhir



Category: Vis a Vis | Locked In (Spain TV)
Genre: F/F, Rosa - Freeform, Slow Burn, Zurena, babysitter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25919725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zxhir/pseuds/Zxhir
Summary: AU: Macarena is a rich, hardworking, single mother of a daughter only 3 years old and balancing work and family has started to become on the verge of impossible in her life. Desperate and out of options, she lets a friend help her put up an advert for a babysitter online. To her surprise, the response is immediate. A woman who’s as desperate for a job as Maca is for a babysitter, and comes with many surprises to say the least, gets the job. Little does Maca know she has hired an ex-prisoner, convicted for not only a bunch of robberies, but also assault and even murder…
Relationships: Zulema Zahir/Macarena Ferreiro, Zurena - Relationship
Comments: 204
Kudos: 464





	1. Giving In

It’s five in the afternoon when Macarena walks through the door to her luscious apartment in the busy center of Madrid. Work today had been hectic. It always was. Being an art consultant was fun, but also extremely challenging, both creatively and physically and there was extremely little time for anything else. Especially family, when you’re a single mother on top of it all.

She carelessly drops her purse to the floor and takes off her coat as if she’s in a hurry. The stress has begun to take a toll on her and followed her like a shadow wherever she went.  
  


“ _Román?_ ” She calls out, hoping her voice is clear enough to carry through the many rooms of her home, “Has she eaten yet?” 

Her brother comes jogging out of the kitchen. 

“Thank god you’re back..!” She sighs in relief, “I need to run, my meeting started five minutes ago. The food is ready, it’s on the stove and Rosa is in her chair..!” He hurries as he puts his shoes and jacket on all at once before disappearing out the door.

Román was the only close family Macarena had left and the only person she trusted with Rosa. He was hard working too but thankfully, being an architect, he was often able to work from home. She hated to ask him so often, but she simply couldn’t bring her daughter with her to work every day. She needed someone to look after her. Her boss had complained many times in the past already, but still let her bring her, knowing she was only three years old and that Maca was out of options. 

“Rosa, baby..!” The blonde exclaims as she enters the kitchen. The little girl sits patiently in her chair, feet dangling in the air, “You must be starving…” 

She grabs the pot in the stove and pours the oatmeal into a bowl, adding some cinnamon for flavor. Sugar was a no-no in this household. A spoon goes into it and she takes it to the table where her daughter is waiting, 

“Here you go, _cariño_.” She murmurs and gently places a kiss on top of her head before taking a seat right next to her. She sighs. She needed to do something about this whole situation but she had no idea how. 

A close friend of hers had advised her to put out an advert, a ‘babysitter wanted’ kind of thing… but Maca didn’t like the thought of a stranger taking care of her baby. She had tried to convince her that many people do this and explained that there’s no need to worry. You meet up with them and you get to know them a little before deciding whether you feel like they’re suitable for the job or not. Besides, she didn’t have a lot of options right now. Perhaps she should give her a call..? 

“Finally off?” Her friend mocks on the other line,

” _Sí_ ,” Maca sighs heavily, “But not for long. I’m off tomorrow but that’s it. I start working again on Monday…” 

“Jeez, girl..! You need a break.”

“You tell me… That’s actually partly why I called you,” Maca begins, “I’ve thought a lot of what you told me about getting a babysitter. Things are starting to get really tough around here… Román is working more than usual and he’s the only one who can take her while I work.” 

“Finally! I’ve been waiting for you to say that!” She exclaims happily, clapping her hands in the background, “... Do you need help?” 

“Yes. I definitely do…” Maca sighs, “Do you mind coming over sometime this week?” 

“How about today? I’m extremely bored anyway and this news got me excited..!” She giggles,

“Sure,” Maca shrugs, even though she cannot see her gesture, “I don’t have anything planned tonight anyway.” 

“Awesome!” The other woman exclaims, “I need to get some pants on and find my car keys that I lost yesterday… But I’ll let you know when I’m on my way!” 

“No rush, I gotta get Rosa to finish her food before I have time to look for a babysitter anyway…” Maca says and tries to guide the spoon to her daughter's mouth simultaneously. Her friend laughs,

“Alright, see you soon then!” 

Maca hangs up and puts the phone aside next to her on the table and proceeds to continue helping Rosa put the food in her mouth and not elsewhere… she had a tendency of collecting it all in her lap or all over her clothes. 

“Baby, in your mouth!” She pleads as Rosa starts playing with the food once again. Suddenly the phone starts ringing again and the blonde sighs frustratedly, because she knows exactly who’s calling. It’s Helena, a coworker of hers. 

“Hello?” 

“Macarena! Thank god you answered…” she exhales in relief, “I’ve called at least three other colleagues before you and no one’s picked up..!” 

Maca already knows what this is about and it slowly starts creating a lump in her stomach. Helena was the kind of coworker who always had a reason to be off work and needed someone to cover her shift. Either her kid was sick or she had some kind of important appointment… 

“Would you be able to cover a couple of hours for me tomorrow evening? I need to get off a little earlier than usual. I promise I’ll make it up to you!” She pleads and Maca is too kind to say no. 

“Of course..! A couple of hours shouldn't be a problem.” She assures, while catching food falling from Rosa’s spoon. 

“Great! Thank you so much Macarena, really! You’re a lifesaver!” Helena exclaims, and Maca doesn’t even get the chance to reply before she speaks again, “Okay, I gotta run unfortunately, talk to you later! Thanks again!” 

She hangs up faster than the blonde can process the conversation. She instantly regrets accepting her request. Román was working all day tomorrow and she couldn’t bring Rosa with her during one of Helena’s shifts… She was currently dealing with a very picky, proper couple who were looking for a huge art piece suitable for the living room in their two floor and nine room apartment in the heart of Madrid. Bringing a three year old child, who most definitely would get tired between seven and nine o’clock, would come across highly unprofessional and she didn’t want Helena to have to deal with the consequences despite her being the one to create this situation in the first place. She just couldn’t bear having that on her conscience. 

After just ten minutes, it knocks in the door. Rosa has just finished her meal and Maca goes to put the bowl in the sink before lifting her out of her chair. Her friend enters without an invite. She knows she’s always welcome.   
  


” _Holaaa..!_ ” She sings as she takes off her shoes and jacket in the hallway, before leaping into the kitchen. 

”Rizos, thank god… You won’t even believe what I’ve gotten myself into already, between our call and now…” she sighs and slams her palm to her forehead frustratedly. Rizos, who’s real name is Estefanía, tilts her head,

“What now..?” She’s used to Maca getting into trouble by now. She was like a magnet for all kinds of it.

“I have to work tomorrow and I’ve got no one who can watch Rosa for me. Román is working and you’re studying… I don’t know why I said yes..!” She whines and slouches back into the kitchen chair. 

“So let’s get started!” Rizos exclaims, “Where’s your laptop?” She claps her hands and looks around eagerly, full of energy as always. Maca points to the living room and the brunette finds it on the coffee table. She jogs over, rips it out of the charger and slams it down atop the kitchen table. 

“ _Díos_ , Rizos, be careful with that..!” She frowns, not at all as excited as her friend to start the hunt for a stranger to take care of her child. 

The brunette smashes away on the keyboard and the blonde doesn’t even bother to watch. She’s sure she knows what she’s doing. 

“Okay, so,” She turns the computer so that Maca can see the screen properly and points, “This is what you need to fill in. You really don’t need to write a lot, just basics like why you need a sitter, how old your daughter is and how much you offer to pay them for the job.” 

“Fine.” Maca mumbles and pulls the macbook closer to herself. She starts writing, not a lot, but what Rizos had told her to include. She also added that she wanted a responsible, experienced woman, specifically. She didn’t feel comfortable leaving her daughter in the hands of a random man… It felt safer with a woman. 

“That looks great already, girl!” Rizos smiles, “Maybe you should add that it’s urgent, considering they’re going to have to start tomorrow already…” 

“Right…” Maca nods and adds another sentence to highlight the urgency, “There.” 

“Great!” The brunette grins, “Now we just need to put it up online and hope for the best..!” She takes the laptop back and starts clicking away once again,

“What if no one replies before tomorrow?” She suddenly asks worriedly, “I’ll be _so_ fucked…” 

“Don’t worry,” she reassures, “Considering how much you offer to pay them, you should have messages rolling in within an hour..!” 

Maca rolls her eyes. Rizos always had to comment on her fortune. She was aware she had a lot of money, more than most people but she had also worked hard and earned it. Besides, she was willing to give whatever it took at this point in order to solve her current dilemma. 

“Aaaand… we’re live!” Rizos exclaims once the advert has been successfully published and Maca offers her a weak smile, “Hey come on, don’t worry so much..! You get to meet this person before deciding whether they’re suitable or not and besides, most people applying for these kinds of jobs do it because they love children.” Her friend explains convincingly. Maca throws Rosa an eye. She’s walking around playing with her tiger plushie, unbothered and happily unaware of everything going on at the moment. 

“ _Vale…_ ” Maca mumbles, knowing she’s probably exaggerating. There was no need to be so pessimistic about it. This was going to be of huge help to her, that was the whole point.

“Look!” The brunette suddenly shouts excitedly as she points at the screen, “You’ve already got a message!” Maca leans in to watch as she opens it and try to follow as she reads, 

**Hi, my name is Yolanda and I’m 20 years old. I’d love to take care of Rosa when needed, though I study, which means I’m not available 24/7. Let me know if this is an issue or if I’m just what you need! :)**

Maca sighs,

“I do need someone I can rely on twenty four seven…” she complains, already feeling like this is a lost case. She sometimes had to travel within her work and stay in different cities overnight. She was going to need one who can step in at any time of the day. 

“Okay, okay, that’s fine..!” Rizos reassures, “We’ll just let her know and see if we can get another one on the hook.” She says and starts tapping away on the keyboard yet again to reply to the girl. While she’s writing, another message pops up. And another. The brunette turns to her with a wide grin,

“See?! I told you!” 

But after seventeen messages, from men, teenagers without experience, people only able to work weekends or weekdays and not whenever, they still haven’t found the perfect babysitter. Maca is starting to give up. This felt completely useless and it was getting late.

“You know what,” Maca sighs heavily, “Let’s take a break from this… I have to put Rosa to bed and eat something before I have a mental breakdown.” 

Rizos laughs,

“You have some high demands, girl!” She elbows her friend lightly, “I mean you have gotten a ton of messages..!”

“I know… but what does it matter when none of those offers really help?” She whines, gesturing with her hand towards the screen. The computer suddenly makes a sound and brown eyes fall back to the screen, 

“Another message!” The brunette exclaims but Maca is too tired to really care at this point,

“You read it, I’ll go get Rosa and tuck her in.” 

She walks into her daughter’s bedroom, where Rosa is sitting on the floor, playing with a couple of dolls that she got for Christmas last year. 

“Hi baby,” Maca smiles, leaning against the door frame,

“Hi mommy..!” She says, clearly busy making up an interaction between her two dolls. 

“Are you sleepy yet? I think Ana and Lucía are..!” She singsongs and gently takes the dolls out of her hands, “It’s late.” She murmurs and strokes her cheek. Rosa yawns. 

“Sí…” she mumbles and voluntarily stumbles over to her bed. 

“Maca!!” Rizos suddenly yells from the kitchen,

“ _One second!_ ” Maca responds and starts tucking her child in, “Okay, sleep tight, honey. Tomorrow you’ll meet a new friend.” She switches the lights off and walks back out to the kitchen and Rizos who seems to have found something. 

“Look at this.” She turns the computer so that she can read,

**Hi, My name is Zulema Zahir, I’m a 35 year old woman, experienced with children and in urgent need of a job so I don’t mind starting straight away. I can work any hours, any day and I don’t mind being called in on short notice. Hit me up if you need me.**

”Well??” The brunette urges, expecting a positive response from her friend. 

”I mean,” she starts and her eyes wander over the message once more, ”It sounds really good. She didn’t add a picture like everyone else though…” 

”Come on, are you gonna pick a babysitter depending on their _looks?_ ” She quirks a brow and Maca shrugs lightly,

”No… I guess I’m just afraid I’m being catfished or something.” She grumbles, and Rizos rests a hand on top of hers, 

“We’ll message her back and meet up with her tomorrow, together, okay?” She soothes, “I promise you, there’s nothing to worry about.” 

Maca nods carefully. She trusts Rizos, she really does, she just had a hard time getting used to the thought of having a stranger take care of her child while she wasn’t at home. That she would have no control whatsoever over the situation. What if something happened? Maybe the babysitter turns out to be amazing but what if an accident occurs while she’s stuck at work? She knew that these were things she couldn’t prevent and shouldn’t overthink, but she just simply couldn’t help it. 

“Alright, what should we reply…” her friend mumbles lost in thought before starting to write, “I’ll ask her if she’s available tomorrow, _no_?” She throws Maca a glance.

“... Yeah, sure!” She shrugs, “before seven. Oh, and ask if she would be able to start tomorrow already.” 

”Gotcha!” 

**Hey Zule, that’s dope! :)**  
  


“No.” Maca cuts her off immediately and takes the laptop from her before she has a chance to protest. She deletes the horrid sentence and starts over,

**Hi Zulema, thank you for reaching out. You seem to be exactly who I’m looking for, considering my hectic work schedule. In fact, I need someone tomorrow already. Do you have time to meet up tomorrow around lunch, by any chance? I would love to know more about you and for you to meet my daughter.**

**Best regards  
** **Macarena Ferreiro**

  
  


“There we go.” Maca states and pushes the laptop over to Rizos again and the brunette rolls her eyes. 

” _Vale_.” She clicks send.”, ”See, you just got yourself a babysitter! Wasn’t that hard, was it?” She beams. Maca smiles back at her.

”If anything goes wrong, I _will_ blame you.” She chuckles. And just as Rizos laughs, the computer lets out a sound. Both women’s attention is shift to the screen,

**How about 1PM? Send me your address and I’ll be there. Can’t wait to meet her!**

Maca smiles, genuinely, at last. She suddenly felt joy knowing someone was excited to see her daughter and help them out. She didn’t have a lot of people in her life. Since her parents passed away, it had just been her, Román and work. Work took up most of both their lives. It was a choice they had made together as a way to cope with their loss, initially, but they got stuck in it and Rosa, well, she wasn’t exactly planned… She was more of an accident that happened one night when Maca was fed up with work and decided to go out and relax for once. She ended up way too drunk and woke up in some stranger’s bed the next morning. 

Despite it being an accident, she decided to keep the baby, though. She was lonely and needed change. This was her chance. She had always wanted children, just perhaps not like this… She had imagined she would get married to a handsome man, buy a house and be able to stay home and take care of the children for a couple of years before even thinking about work… Things clearly turned out differently.

She writes down her address before she continues,

**1PM sounds great. We’ll be expecting you. :)**

**/ Macarena**

“Nervous?” The brunette asks suddenly and Maca almost forgot she was there for a second. 

“A little, yes. I don’t know what to expect but since she’s my age and wants to take care of a three year old I suppose she isn’t very different from me.” She shrugs. 

“Imagine y’all becoming best friends and all..!” She winks and nudges the blonde with her shoulder,

“Oh don’t start..! We haven’t even met yet.” Maca shakes her head, but the thought does create an unfamiliar warmth in her chest for a brief moment. 

“Okay girl, I gotta ditch but I’ll come over tomorrow before one PM, right?” She says as she gets up from the kitchen chair, “I’ll message you in the morning!” Maca just nods and her friend sneaks out into the hallway, carefully, not to wake Rosa. 

“Night..!” She whispers before shutting the door behind her. Maca closes the laptop and everything goes completely silent in an instant. She was nervous, she was. But the fact that she might just have solved a problem that she had had for a three entire years now, brought her comfort even though it wasn’t guaranteed to work out. There was a _possibility_ and that was enough. 

* * *

“Mind sharing?” a male voice asks and makes Zulema switch focus from her phone to the guy that has appeared next to her. Her smile drops and instead she looks confused for a second, before he nods towards the cigarette between her lips. She pushes herself off the brick wall she’s leaning against and takes the glowing cigarette butt out of her mouth, only to shove it straight into his. 

“Enjoy, _cabrón_.” She husks before walking back towards the back door of the club. Just as she reaches for the handle, she gets snatched backwards by the hood of her hoodie and grabbed by the throat quicker than she can process what’s happening. Little does the man know that Zulema has a gun tucked down the hem of her pants and she reaches behind her back to grab a hold of it just as he slams her back against the wall. Without hesitation, she presses the muzzle against his pulse point which gives an immediate reaction. His hand starts loosening around her neck already and his expression has gone from pissed to terrified. 

“ _Suéltame_ , or I _swear_ I’ll blow your fucking brains out.” She warns firmly and it doesn’t take many seconds before the guy has both let go and taken off into the distance. 

The brunette catches her breath as she watches him run and disappear around a corner and lights another cigarette to keep her nerves in check.   
  


Tomorrow was going to be interesting. 


	2. Angel or Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First impressions.

The clock has just struck 9 AM. Maca barely got any sleep last night. The thoughts kept tumbling around in her head, good and bad thoughts. Worry, but also relief. Rosa hadn’t really slept well either. She never really does and Maca doesn't really know what to do about it. It kinda stressed her out a little, knowing that she was putting this issue in the hands of a stranger as well. She had gone way out of her comfort zone to do this, though if it wasn’t for Rizos, she would never even have considered it. She just hopes that she’s right… 

As she’s stressing to get dressed for no reason whatsoever, her phone suddenly pings. It catches her attention once she has buttoned the last button on her blouse and she walks over to check it, hoping that it isn’t work. It’s not. It’s a text message from Rizos,

**Hey girl, I’m so sorry but I won’t be able to make it to 1PM… Work called me in last minute. :(**

**I know I promised, I’m so so sorry, but you can do this! I believe in you, good luck today! It’s all gonna turn out great.**

**_Besos, besos, BESOS”_ **

Maca sighs and closes her eyes shut. Crap. As if she wasn’t nervous enough already. 

“ _ Mamá,”  _ Maca spins around. Rosa is awake and is standing in the doorway to her bedroom with her tiger in her arms, “I’m hungry…” She still struggles a little to say the R’s and it makes Maca’s heart go soft every time. 

“I’ll make us breakfast in a minute, honey..!” She smiles and strokes her daughter’s cheek as she passes her to get to the living room, only to check if everything is clean and in its place. It is, as always, but she needed to make sure. The first impression is important, “do you want me to make banana pancakes?” 

Rosa nods eagerly, her whole face beaming as she leaps into the kitchen and Maca goes to turn on the stove before opening the fridge to look for oat milk and bananas. She finds some blueberries as well and flour in the cabinet above the stove. She throws an eye at the clock. She’s got three hours, and for some reason that felt shorter than three whole hours usually do. 

She heaves a pan up onto the stove, grabs a bowl from the cabinet above and starts mixing the ingredients together. Quick breakfast in this family was never actually quick. Everything had to be made from scratch, preferably, and contain only good nutritions and fibers. Maca was very careful with what she fed her daughter in order for her to grow and stay healthy.   
  


After feeding her daughter and herself, she starts cleaning the apartment as if it isn’t  _ always _ spotless and tidy. She wanted everything organized; almost pedantic of how she wanted her home to be presented. She had a feeling Zulema was probably the last person to care, but she couldn’t help it. 

Rosa stays in her room, playing with her favorite dolls as Maca vacuums the last traces of dust off the floor. Suddenly it knocks on the door and Maca freezes for a second. That has got to be her. She walks over to the hallway, almost tip toeing, before she stops right at the door. She takes a deep breath and places a hand atop the handle.  


The apartment was clean, she had dressed up slightly for the occasion and Rosa was in a good mood. There’s nothing that can go wrong with this first impression. She pushes the handle down and pulls the door wide open. The intense, dark green eyes that immediately meet hers, are something that she suddenly felt like she wasn’t ready for. 

This woman looked nothing like she had imagined. The pitch black hair, straight bangs, all dark clothes, from the hoodie to the cargo pants and platform boots… Her makeup was kind of heavy but it suited her. Although it didn’t look too much on her with the sharp eyeliner and the subtle teal below her eyes, Maca thought it was a little much around a child. Last but not least, her eyes fall to a tattoo on her face, seemingly resembling a tear.

She knew she shouldn’t be judging by looks but she can’t help but think that this was someone she would have avoided on the street… 

Zulema is gawking just as much. She didn’t expect a stressed single mother to look like  _ that.  _ Not that she had any expectations to begin with, she was mostly focused on getting that job, but this struck her in a way she wasn’t prepared for. The white jeans, the light blue satin blouse and the way her hair was perfectly pinned up, made her blink almost excessively hard.

“Hey,” Zulema blurts out, realizing the moment has been invaded by awkward silence. Maca shakes her head as if to come out of her current state of mind before reaching out a hand. The brunette shakes it lightly, “Zulema.” 

“Macarena. Welcome,” Maca smiles politely before stepping out of the way and gestures for her to come inside. The brunette steps inside, the little chain hanging from her pants clings slightly against the rest of the buttons and zippers decorating her pants. She kicks her boots off and suddenly becomes two inches shorter than she was just seconds ago, ending up the same height as Maca. 

“So,” Maca exhales to break the silence, “Nervous?”

“I was gonna ask you the same question.” Zulema smirks and throws her an eye and for some reason it instantly makes the blonde feel a little uneasy. She lets out a forced chuckle and tries to play it off as if she took it as a joke, “Where’s little Rosa?” She asks,

“Oh, she… Well, I thought maybe we could talk some before you two meet… She’s a little shy and she’s taking a nap at the moment.” Maca explains nervously and the other woman just nods. 

“Alright,” she shrugs, “the kitchen?” 

Macarena nods and leads the way. Zulema takes a seat at the table and takes a look around. The apartment was big and luscious. It was obvious that Macarena was wealthy, despite being a single woman with a kid, “So, tell me a little about yourself..!” 

“Well,” Zulema starts, seemingly thinking of something relevant and appropriate to tell her, “I don’t really know what more to say than what I’ve already told you.” 

“What about… Previous jobs? What do you do in your spare time?” Maca tries, desperate to know more about this odd, rather mysterious woman, “your experience with children?” 

“ _ Vale...  _ I worked in a car wash before this, but I got bored and started looking for something else. I’ve taken care of some friend’s kids every now and then and I’ve had siblings I’ve taken care of since I was a kid myself. In my spare time, I…” she pauses, she wasn’t exactly going to tell her that she recently got out of prison for murder and still had a bit of a hard time adjusing to society. She still enjoyed sneaking around nightclubs to shoot bad guys in the nuts or some other fun body part that wouldn’t exactly kill them, but she obviously wasn’t going to tell her that either, “I go to the club sometimes… Though I don’t drink. I don’t do drugs either so you don’t have to worry about that. I know that I can come off as that kinda type, my fashion choices often throw people off…” she chuckles, her voice deep. 

Maca offers her a brief smile. She still couldn’t bring herself to smile genuinely yet and she wasn’t sure if it was because of discomfort or her nerves that had been on edge since she opened her front door. Those big, dark, painted eyes were  _ piercing _ and there was something intimidating about her presence that kept making her doubt this was a good idea after all… 

“Where do you live? Do you have family, pets?” Maca continues. Zulema’s mouth curls and she leans onto the table, 

“Why do you need to know all this?” She suddenly asks and Maca’s brows shoot up. Honestly, she just wanted to make sure she wasn’t some creep or someone who would be bad for Rosa or the two of them, but she couldn’t exactly tell her that. 

“I— I just want to get to know you better. You’re gonna take care of my child, after all.” She says, trying to save herself. The darker woman nods,

“Fair enough. I do have a pet, I live in a small apartment and no, I don’t have family around here.” She says and leans back in the chair again and crosses her arms over her chest, “Now, I wanna know about you.” Maca’s lips part slightly but she’s at a loss for words for a moment, 

“This isn’t about me.” Maca chuckles, trying to sound as polite as possible but the other woman squints her eyes, 

“I think it’s only fair that I get to know you as well as you get to know me.” She tilts her head and those intense eyes are making the blonde nervous all over again. 

“Well,” she starts and takes a breath to gather some courage, “I didn’t get to know that much about you.” The brunette lets out a hearty laugh,

“ _ Bueno,”  _ Her smirk never drops, “Dating anyone?” Maca frowns, a little taken aback by the personal question,

“Excuse me?” 

“I’m just asking since I know you’re single and struggling. Could do you good to see someone.” She shrugs.

“Well, that’s none of your business.” Her politeness has gone out the window as she has started to lose patience. 

“I’m kidding, relax.” Zulema purrs, “I’m here for the kid, ‘aight?” She reassures and Maca blushes slightly. The woman was bold and she had a feeling that was something she would have to get used to.

”Right,” Maca agrees, ”I’m gonna go and wake her up…” 

She had a bad gut feeling about this. Perhaps only because she’s a particularly paranoid and careful person, and Zulema was special, not as easy to deal with as she thought this person she hired would be. Maybe she was being too pessimistic. Perhaps it was a positive thing? With determination and boldness like that she may be really good at setting boundaries, for example… 

“Rosa, my love…” she gently calls, as she enters her daughter’s room, “there’s someone I want you to meet.” The little girl blinks, but gets excited rather fast and clumsily climbs out of bed. Maca keeps a hand on her back to lead her out to Zulema. 

Rosa’s eyes widen when she sees her, kneeled to the floor just a few steps away from her. 

Zulema waves at her and Maca looks at Rosa, thinking she might be quite shocked too since she was raised among people just like Maca and Román. She had probably never seen someone look the way Zulema did, ever. 

Suddenly the little girl leaves the palm of her hand and walks over to the other woman. She stops right in front of her and lets her eyes wander across her face. A little hand comes up and with her tiny index finger, she traces the tattoo below her eye before either of them have said anything.

“Wha is this?” She asks, and Maca is about to stop her but Zulema replies before she has the chance to,

“It’s a tattoo.” She replies,

“Wha’s a tattoo?” 

“It’s… Like a painting, that will stay there forever.” She says, realizing simple things were kinda hard to explain to such a small child. Rosa seems content with the answer though and moves on to touch the bright teal color underlining her eyes,

“Rosa—“ Maca starts but Zulema gestures that it’s alright. She keeps tracing her makeup before moving on to her bangs, then proceeds to just look into her eyes. 

“You pretty.” She says and it takes both her mom and the brunette slightly by surprise but soon Zulema beams,

“And you’ve got taste, _chiquitín!_ ” She playfully presses her little nose like a button, “What’s your name?” She asks even though she already knows,

“Losa,” she says but notices rather quickly that it doesn’t sound quite right, “... Rosa.” She corrects, putting some more effort into succeeding articulating the R this time. 

“What a beautiful name! I’m Zulema.” She exclaims and holds out a hand but Rosa takes a step closer and greets her by kissing her cheeks instead. The older woman finds herself unable to stop smiling. 

“Is you my friend?” She asks,

“I’m… Yes. I’m your friend.  _ And  _ your… other mother, you could say.” She winks and her gaze momentarily flickers up to Maca. 

Maca throws her a warning glare. She did  _ not  _ like that she used that term. She was her only mother and she had already struggled with teaching her how every child doesn’t have a father and that some kids only have one parent and that’s okay. Besides, it low-key sounded like a pickup line and it made her slightly uncomfortable. 

”Zulema is going to stay with you and keep you company while mommy is working,” Maca explains, ”Is that alright with you?” She asks, and Rosa nods eagerly. 

“Alright…” Maca mumbles and throws Zulema a glance, “We’ll see each other again in six hours then..!” 

Zulema gets up on her feet and nods once. 

”That we will.” 

Maca can’t help but feel like she wants to break the eye contact every time the brunette looks at her. 

Once Zulema has put her boots back on and left, Maca immediately picks up her phone and dials her friend’s number. The friend that should have been there for her today...

“Hey, oh my god, how did it go??” Rizos exclaims excitedly into the phone,

“Well…” Her brows shoot up, “I don’t really know what to say.” She sighs,

“... What?” The brunette stresses, “Is that good or bad?” 

“I mean…” she starts but soon rubs her temple, “I don’t know if this is a good idea, Rizos.” 

“Are you serious? What happened?” Her tone now really concerned,

“Nothing bad happened I just—“ she shakes her head, “Zulema is… very peculiar.” 

“She’s a weirdo?” Rizos boldly simplifies. 

“No, not exactly. She seems rather intellectual. She knows how to come with witty comments and… I don’t know, I kinda feel like that’s the problem, that she can be rather manipulative.” 

“Maca, I don’t get shit of what you’re trying to say.” The brunette chuckles dryly, 

“She has a face tattoo, Rizos!” Maca whines frustratedly, “She wears all black, even her hair is black. She didn’t want to tell me much about herself, kinda tried to turn the whole thing around and be the one to ask the questions… I just don’t like it.”

“So you’re… intimidated by her looks and it makes you suspicious about everything she says?” 

Maca sighs and slaps her palm against her forehead.

“No—“ she starts but realizes Rizos isn’t going to get it. She doesn’t  _ want  _ to get it. She wants to be right, but Maca isn’t so sure that she is. Not about this, not this time, “I just pictured someone… else.” She sighs, realizing it sounded just as shallow as everything else she has said so far. 

“Yeah… clearly!” Rizos laughs, always making fun of the way Maca was paranoid and scared about most things she wasn’t familiar with.

“You  _ left  _ me with her, you have no right to ridicule me right now. You haven’t even met her, Estefanía.” Maca mutters, clearly not in the mood for any of this, “I’m seriously worried. I’m leaving Rosa with her  _ tonight _ .” 

“ _ Vale, vale… _ ” Rizo’s mumble’s, ”what do you think we should do about it then? Do you have a better solution?”

”That’s the problem…” The blonde sighs, “I don’t..” 

“... Give her a chance, Maca.” Rizos pleads and the blonde realizes that no matter how much it bothers her that Rizos thinks she knows better in this situation, she doesn’t have much of a choice. 

“ _ Fine _ ,” she gives in, “But these two hours will be crucial.”

”I’m sure it will be alright..! Don’t stress too much about it.” Rizos soothes,

”Right… Okay, I’ll call you again when I’m back home.”

”Sure, whenever you need me!” 

”Thanks…” 

They hang up and Maca goes to sit down on the couch. She really should give her a chance. It was stupid to judge from the little she had heard and seen.

It hits her though, that she never mentioned all the rules and routines she has set up in this home that should be strictly followed no matter what. She will probably have time to tell her about the most important ones before she leaves later on… 

“Mama,” Rosa calls, “is she your friend?” 

“Not exactly, honey… but she will be yours!” She reassures, hoping she’s telling the truth.

“Okay…” she mumbles, “Why not?” her tone a little sad,

“Well, she might become mine too, you never know. I just met her, just like you.” She says and lifts her daughter up into the couch with her.

“She live with us?” 

“She’s gonna stay here while mommy is working,” She clarifies, stroking her blonde little locks, “So that you’re not alone.” 

“Okay!” She smiles and Maca smiles back at her. She really,  _ really _ hopes that they’ll get along…

The clock strikes a quarter to seven when it knocks on the door again. Macarena doesn’t understand why she isn’t using the bell… She seemed to prefer recklessly knocking. She opens and is met by the same intense gaze as earlier,

“Hey,” she greets shortly “again.” 

Maca just smiles and steps aside.

“Zulema!” Rosa exclaims as she enters and Maca throws her an eye in surprise. Rosa had never remembered someone’s name before that wasn’t her own mom’s or uncle’s. Let alone an unusual name like hers, 

“Rosa!” She growls playfully and leans in to mess around with her hair. As she brushes past Maca, the blonde is hit with the smell of cigarette smoke, something she wasn’t very fond of, but she couldn’t blame her for smoking, could she? 

“Zulema, I’d like to talk to you about a few things I want you to know about how we do things in this home.” Maca says and the brunette turns her head to look at her,

“Shoot.” 

“Rosa is not allowed to eat sugar. Not only because it’s bad for you in general but also because she has a hard time falling asleep. She will probably still have a hard time falling asleep, so you’ve got to have patience on that part,” she says and Zulema cocks a brow at the sugar talk, but she ignores it, “She goes to sleep at nine. No later. I think that’s all you need to know for now. You’re only gonna be here for a couple of hours after all…” 

“Got it. No problem.” She nods. 

“Okay… I gotta go, I’ve got ten minutes before I need to be in my office, but I trust that you’ve got this under control.” Maca half smiles and starts putting her coat on.

“I’m hungy.” Rosa sighs, her R’s failing. Zulema looks at her,

“Well let's get you to the kitchen then, once you’ve said bye to your mom..!” 

Maca looks at the other woman, who’s still looking at Rosa. She had so many mixed feelings about her, she didn’t even know what to think anymore. Somehow, what she said sounded reliable. It really sounded like she’s got it; that she knew what she was doing. But the way she was with Rosa was very different from the way she was with her and it made her feel uneasy, for some reason. 

She puts her shoes on and waves to her daughter who blows her kisses before she steps outside and closes the door. 

  
Once it’s quiet, Zulema’s gaze falls straight to the little girl next to her,

“Come on, u probably know the way to the kitchen better than I do.” She urges and Rosa takes off towards the kitchen. Once there, Zulema lifts her up into her chair with a huff and walks over to rest her lower back against the kitchen counter,

” _ Bueno,” _ Zulema murmurs and her eyes squint, ”so what do you eat?” 

Rosa just looks at her with big innocent eyes. 

”Like can you chew? How many teeth have you got?” She gestures with her hands as if to urge her on but Rosa still doesn’t answer. She has probably got no idea what she’s talking about at the moment. Zulema clicks her tongue and turns around to see what they have in the fridge. Everything in there looked kind of gross. Vegetables, plant based milk, mostly vegan and ecological products… She grabs a package of chia seeds standing on the counter and grimaces, “what do you even do with these?” 

Zulema had no experience with children, at all. She didn’t have siblings. She barely even had friends and the few friends she had, definitely didn’t have kids. She lied because she needed a job where she could stay inside and hide from the few people who were still after her. She had many enemies, both from her prison days and new ones that she’s succeeded to collect during her short time on the outside, and having a job where you spend most time in an anonymous apartment was very beneficial. Besides, how hard could it be?    
  


”I pee.” She suddenly says. Zulema turns around and frowns,

”You need to pee?” She asks, but the child shakes her head, ”then what?” 

”I pee!” She repeats and it doesn’t hit her until Rosa pulls the hem of her diaper. Right. Of course. 

Zulema shuts her eyes closed, rubs her temples and sighs,  _ heavily _ .


	3. A Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off I just want to apologize for such a late update..! I’ve been busy struggling to finish the last chapter of Déjame, which required a lot of me emotionally and took some time to write for that reason. But now I’m back on track! xx 
> 
> Hope you’ll enjoy this one!

Zulema was already pretty fed up with this new job of hers. She knew it wasn’t really her kind of thing before she signed up for it and she knew that because of that it was going to be pretty demanding. She hadn’t exactly imagined that she would be changing diapers when she got out of prison but she didn’t have much of a choice. 

When the diaper has been changed and Zulema has carried the dirty one, pinched between two fingers, to the trash and washed her hands for what feels like ten minutes straight, Rosa leaps back out to the kitchen.   
  


”Foo, foo!” She sing-songs and tries to climb her chair. It’s way too high though and Zulema catches her doing it before an accident occurs. 

”Are you out of your mind??” Zulema exclaims as she grabs a hold of the back of her shirt and lifts her into the chair, ”if you get hurt your mother is going to slit my throat with one if her credit cards…” she mumbles,

”I’m hungy…” Rosa whines and Zulema sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose, 

”I know. You said that.” She mutters dryly. The child keeps looking at her beggingly, ”Well, shoot, tell me what you want. I have a feeling you’re a picky eater…” She rolls her eyes, gesturing to the fridge full of vegan food.

Rosa starts sobbing, quietly, like a ticking bomb and the brunette’s eyes grow in panic,

”No. Nonono!” She shakes her head desperately, ”No crying..!” But it doesn’t help. A split second later the three year old is full on weeping, making the older woman almost want to quit her job on the spot. 

“Fine! Fine, fine, fine.” She shouts to override the crying, ”I’ll figure something out.” 

She spins around to dig through in the cabinet for _anything_ that isn’t overkill and excessively healthy. She doesn’t care _what_ she eats as long as it ends the horrific, earsplitting noise echoing inside the kitchen. After minutes of digging, the only thing she finds that’s simple enough for her to serve, is a banana. She peels it and hands it over to Rosa.

“Here.” 

Rosa looks at it, then at her babysitter. She shakes her head and continues to sob,

“Oh for fuck sake, _niña!_ ” She throws her hands in the air and the banana back onto the counter, “I’ve understood that you’re spoiled but come on..!” 

“I want mommy!” Rosa cries and the brunette scoffs,

“Of course you do.” She mutters and turns around to find something else but she really isn’t good in the kitchen. She has no idea what to make or how to make it. Especially not with these ridiculously complex ingredients. She had had her food cooked and served to her every day for ten years while in prison. 

She eventually finds bread. Well, she’s pretty sure it is bread. It’s hard to tell when it’s not just a pale, toastable square… but a dark brown, seemingly hard-to-chew, compact chunk of fibers topped with some kind of seeds. She checks the fridge for butter and she finds something similar to what it usually looks like. After further inspection, she can conclude that it’s expensive, dairy free butter, but it _is_ butter. She sloppily spreads it out on the sandwich and hands it to Rosa.   
  


“Eat or starve.” She demands,

Rosa looks at the sandwich, then back up at Zulema. She slowly reaches out for it and the older woman drops it as soon as it’s in the hands of the child. 

“Samish! I like samish…” She exclaims happily before she takes a bite and the brunette can finally relax. Dinner accomplished. 

“ _Joder…”_ she mumbles in relief and Rosa throws her a curious glance,

“Joér,” she tries and Zulema’s eyes grow. First in terror because she knows Macarena would kill her if she hear her child curse, but then in amusement since this was her kind of entertainment after all, “Wha’s that?” The child asks,

“Joder,” she articulates, “It’s a bad word that you’re not allowed to say around your mother. You and I, on the other hand, can keep it our little secret.” She winks. 

“ _JoDer..!”_

“Ok, now stop saying that.” Zulema frowns, before she gets up to put the butter and bread away, hastily wipe the counter and impatiently wait for Rosa to finish the crumbs that are left. 

Once she’s finished and is covered in crumbs, Zulema lifts her out of the chair and carries her to the sink to shake her off before putting her back down on the floor. 

“Alright…” she sighs, “What now? Burping? Teeth-brushing? I don’t really know how this works, kid.” 

Rosa suddenly takes off without replying and Zulema’s eyes grow slightly before she jogs after her, 

“Hey!” she shouts and catches her just around the corner to the hallway, “If you fall on your face, I will not feel sorry for you. Just making that clear.” Rosa simply giggles and sprints to the bathroom, making Zulema’s eyes roll. This kid was gonna get her fired. 

Once she reaches the bathroom in the apartment big enough to get lost in, she finds the baby on top of the toilet, reaching for her toothbrush atop a shelf above the sink.   
  


“Do you climb _everything?”_ The brunette asks, clearly fed up with having to lift her off of and down from all kinds of furniture all the time. She picks her and her little feet up and off the lid and places her bum on it instead, making her legs dangle from where she’s now seated. She grabs the pink toothbrush, quickly finds the toothpaste on the sink and applies some before handing it over to Rosa. Rosa just stares at it. “ _Pues_ , _venga.”_ Zulema urges but the little blonde hands it back over to her, “No, we’re brushing _your_ teeth, not mine.” 

“Help!” She squeals,

“ _What?_ ” The older woman snaps, “Don’t say you can’t brush your own teeth…”

“Mommy do.” She says, puts the head of the brush in her mouth and proceeds to stare at her babysitter. Zulema pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs, heavily. 

“You know what—“ she blurts out and snatches the brush out of her mouth, “Forget it. Your mom can brush them tomorrow.” 

Rosa doesn’t complain, but slides off the toilet lid and down to the floor. Her little feet takes her back out to the hallway before Zulema has a chance to grab a hold of her,

“Straight to bed, u little creature!” She yells after her and sighs for herself before shambling out of the bathroom. Zulema usually feels younger than she really is but it felt as if this last hour had made her age ten entire years. She could swear grey hairs had started growing out of her scalp already. 

On her way to bed, Rosa stumbles and falls across the threshold to her room. The brunette shuts her eyes and prepares for a loud wail, but Rosa doesn’t seem very bothered and gets back on her feet almost immediately. She continues her little marathon around the room, grabs her two favorite dolls and crawls up under the blankets. Zulema just watches, in awe of her everlasting energy. 

“ _Vale, loca…”_ she husks from the doorway, “ _Buenas noches.”_

She’s just about to close the door when she hears how the child starts moving around and how little feet once again hit the floor. She rolls her eyes and opens the door back up. Rosa looks at her like a deer caught in headlights and Zulema proceeds to glare at her,

“Sleep.” She demands. Rosa shakes her head.

“I’m no tired…” she whines, her tone sad. The brunette walks over to her, lifts her up and puts her down in the middle of the bed. 

“Listen,” she gently pokes her forehead, “your mother will be here in ten minutes. You have to sleep before then or I’ll get fired.”

“Wha’s fired?” The kid tilts her head,

“She’ll throw me out the window,” she says, holding her hands up on each side of her head, palms facing up, “We don’t want that to happen now, do we?” Rosa giggles and shakes her head, “so will you fall asleep for me, please?” 

“I’m no tired..!” Rosa giggles and Zulema sighs, 

”So it’s the window for me then?” She gets up and starts walking towards the only window in the room, ”This is gonna hurt… Will you at least wave goodbye?” 

Rosa suddenly looks worried,

”No..! _Tía no!_ ” She cries and shakes her head, her features suddenly full of concern. Zulema’s humor was way too dark for a three year old, but she didn’t really care. She had to learn about consequences at some point, right? 

“No?” The brunette cocks a brow, “Then how do we solve this?” 

“Bedtime sto’y?” Rosa suggests, unsurely, still a little shaken by the thought of Zulema falling from the window. The apartment was on the third floor after all. Zulema sighs and lets her gaze linger on the frowning child on the bed,

“... _Vale, vale.”_ She walks over and kneels down next to her, “Promise me you’ll sleep after this?” 

Rosa nods eagerly.

“ _Bueno,”_ she takes a deep breath, “Once upon a time, there was a family who moved into an old house. After they had been living in the house for a few weeks, they began to smell something strange in one of the bedrooms. One night, when they were watching TV, they saw a documentary about a babysitter who had murdered a 3-year-old girl, chopped her into pieces and hidden her body parts in the walls of the house. At the end of the documentary, it showed the address of the murder house. It was the house they had moved into. The police found all of the girl’s body parts, except for her head… The end.” 

Silence fills the room and Rosa’s lip quivers as Zulema’s mouth curls with amusement. 

“Don’t worry, it’s just a story.” The brunette gets on her feet and brushes the non-existent dust off her knees, “Besides, I kinda like you.” 

Rosa is quiet. Not a sound leaves her mouth. Slowly, she pulls the blanket over her shoulders and curls up in the sheets. 

“Goodnight.” The older woman whispers eerily as she shuts the lights off and leaves the room. It’s surprisingly quiet after that. What Macarena had said about it being hard to get Rosa to sleep suddenly seemed like nothing but exaggeration. She walks over to slouch down into the couch and puck up her phone that she hadn’t had time to touch all day… 

There’s a message from Karim. 

**You can’t be serious…** **_Babysitting?_ **

Karim was the closest person to a family member that she had. He had been taking care of her as a child, like an uncle of sorts, when her parents found her fierce nature too much to handle. Although he took care of her, he wasn’t exactly what she needed at the time… He taught her how to pickpocket, how to manipulate and outsmart people and how to use a gun. Things he knew that she could become really good at if he encouraged her to use her full potential. Though these things were those that got her in trouble and eventually behind bars.

He taught her a lot of other things too, though. Not to use drugs, for example. If she ever were to handle drugs at all, it should be to deal, sell it and make big money off of it. To make a profit. Consumption of alcohol was unnecessary too, in his opinion. It would make you lose focus and control and you should never lose either if you want to stay one step ahead of others at all times.

One thing he _didn’t_ teach her was how to handle kids. He never thought that was going to be beneficial for her, let alone that she would take care of them for a living… 

She knew what he was thinking. She wouldn’t make a fortune by babysitting. Honestly she could barely make a living off of it, but she didn’t really care right now. She had no interest in doing any major crimes now when she had finally gotten out of prison. She wasn’t going to go back there for a while and she wanted to make sure of it. Karim can think whatever he wants of it. She simply cannot be bothered at this point.   
  


She doesn’t have time to reply to the message anyway before Maca steps through the door and spots the brunette on the couch with her phone in hand. She looks up as soon as she hears the door shut. 

“Hey..!” Maca smiles unsurely, looking around as if she expects to find Rosa wide awake and eating chocolate in some corner of the room. 

“Oyé.” Zulema replies, gaze falling back to the screen in front of her. 

“Did everything go well? Is she asleep?” She asks,

“ _Sí,_ no problems at all.” She nods. 

“Okay… good..!” She admits, actually rather impressed. Her home was silent. Rosa really seemed to be asleep, “So… how did it feel? Your first day, I mean.” Zulema shrugs,

“I think I can handle it.” She smirks. 

Maca waits a few seconds, expecting her to elaborate, but she doesn’t,

“You’re not very talkative, are you?” She chuckles and Zulema shrugs and gets up from where she’s seated,

“Depends. But I prefer letting my actions speak for themselves.” She husks, nibbling on her lower lip, hands shoved deep down her pockets and her gaze intense as usual. Maca swallows. 

“ _Vale…”_ she mumbles, “Did she eat?” 

“Mhm.” The brunette nods. 

“Good… Well, you’re free to go.” Maca says, as if permission is what Zulema seems to be waiting for. 

“Eager to get rid of me, huh?” Zulema smiles and Maca’s cheeks turn rosy, just like she knew they would. 

“I’m just saying... you’re off. I don’t want to keep you.” She replies, gently. 

Zulema grins before walking past her, lightly nudging her shoulder as she does so. Maca takes a moment to breathe before spinning around to smile back at her while she gets dressed and ready to leave. It’s a pretty quick procedure, since she arrived in her platform boots and the hoodie that she’s already wearing. 

“Oh! Before you go…” Maca hurries right before she touches the handle. The brunette throws her a questioning glance, “here’s my phone number. I figured it’d be easier to communicate via text rather than email…” 

She holds out a little card. Of course she’s got her own business card. Zulema’s gaze drops to look at it almost in awe. The pretty blonde was really handing over her phone number. 

“If you hadn’t clarified already, I’d almost think you’re flirting..!” The brunette winks and Maca rolls her eyes, too shy to protest, “Alright, I’ll send you a message so that you can hit me up when you need me.”

Maca nods and with that, the older woman is gone, the door closed and the apartment silent. Her shoulders drop and she sighs, relieved to be at home and not having to do all the things she usually did before she got a babysitter. This was _so_ _nice_. 

It suddenly hits her that she promised to call Rizos to give her an update and so she does, 

“Is Rosa alive??” Rizos wastes no time. She never does…

“Surprisingly, yes… asleep, even.” Maca admits, still in disbelief,

“Told you it was gonna be alright!” She exclaims, “You worry way too much, babe!” 

“Yeah… I guess you’re right.” The blonde mumbles and they both let out a chuckle, “I just don’t get how she made her fall asleep so fast…”

“Guess she’s exactly what you needed!” Rizos smiles into the phone, 

“Maybe…” Maca sighs, “I’m still getting strange vibes though.”

“Hey, what do you say about lunch downtown tomorrow? If you’re off, of course… You can bring Rosa and we can talk about it, if you feel like it.” 

“Sure..! That’d be nice actually. I do need a break.” 

“I’ll pick you up at 1PM. Don’t answer the phone if work calls you. You’re _off_ tomorrow. Period!” Rizos states and Maca laughs, 

“ _Vale, vale…_ See you tomorrow then!”

“Sure thing! Nighty night, girl!” 

Maca puts the phone down her pocket and tiptoes over to Rosa’s room to quickly check on her before going to sleep herself. As she approaches the door, she can hear faint sobbing coming from the room. She carefully opens the door and she can hear it clearly now. Rosa is crying.

  
“Oh god, honey what’s wrong??” She hurries over to kneel besides the little bed and stroke her daughter’s cheek, “what’s happened?” 

Her heart beats harder. Did Zulema hurt her? Did she say something mean to her? Had she expected too much after all? 

“Has Zulema been mean to you?” She hopes with all her heart that that’s not the case, but she can’t help but ask. Fortunately Rosa shakes her head,

“I had bad dream…” she sobs, and Maca frowns lightly. She had never had a nightmare before, at least not that she knew of. At least it had nothing to do with Zulema. 

“What did you dream about, _cariño_?” She asks as the little girl sits up. She shrugs,

“I donno, it was scary…” She whines and rubs her teary eyes. 

“I’m sorry… Well, it was just a nightmare baby. You’re alright, _no?”_ She strokes her rosy little cheeks. The three-year-old nods and Maca offers her a warm smile in return. “Now,” she begins as she stands back up, “We’re going to see Rizos tomorrow, so—” 

“Izos!!” Rosa exclaims happily and crawls underneath the blanket. She was super fond of the energetic brunette and always happy to see her and it melts her mother's heart every time.

“Yes! So get some sleep, baby.” She leans in and places a soft kiss atop her soft blonde hair before approaching the door, but as she does so, Rosa calls out from behind her,

“Mommy? Can I sleep with you?” She asks carefully, clearly scared of falling back asleep all alone after that nightmare. 

“... Sure. This once.” She didn’t want it to become a habit since it had taken ages for her to start sleeping in her own bed to begin with. But she couldn’t deny her this time. She takes her little hand and they walk over to her bedroom, where Maca has to lift her daughter up into the big bed. As she tucks her in, she keeps trying to figure out what she might have dreamt of…

As soon as Rosa is sound asleep and Macarena has reached over and switched the night lamp off, laid back down and closed her eyes, her phone suddenly buzzes underneath her pillow. Her eyes snap right back open and she shoves her hand between the fabrics to pull it back out. The brightness of the screen is blinding as it lights up and she has to squint to see what the new notification says. It’s a text message from a number that’s not added to her contacts… yet,

**Denim looks good on you.**

  
  



	4. Once a Thief...

The next day, Macarena wakes up from being blinded by the sun instead of a phone screen and quickly fumbles to get a hold of her phone to check the time. She must have overslept because the sun never reaches this side of the apartment before noon. As she suspected, her alarm hasn’t gone off and to her horror, it’s already 12 AM. 

She yanks the comforter off of herself and is just about to wake her daughter when she notices that the other side of the bed is empty. 

“Rosa?” She calls, but no answer. She gets up, throws a pair of jeans and a striped shirt on before exiting the bedroom to search for the girl. It doesn’t take long before she finds her in the kitchen, munching on a banana, “Where did you get that from?” 

“Here..!” Rosa mumbles, mouth full and pats the surface of the kitchen counter. Maca frowns. Perhaps Zulema had taken it out of the fridge yesterday to eat it but forgot about it… 

“Oh well, at least you’ve had breakfast then…” she mumbles for herself as she hurries to Rosa’s bedroom to get her some clean clothes. Once she’s found something pretty enough to wear out in town, she brings the outfit out to the kitchen, quickly dresses her child and takes her to the bathroom. She brushes her little teeth, combs her silky hair before braiding it and last but not least asks her to ‘pee pee’ to avoid accidents or whining at the restaurant. 

Maca is usually always up early in the morning, rarely oversleeps and is definitely never late. Rosa is used to being tossed around by her mother in the morning. It’s always so important to her that both of them are ready and look presentable, whether it’s for work, lunch or the babysitter. Having one hour to get ready just isn't enough. The only thing that could possibly make her relax after a hectic morning like this is a glass of wine, so she calls a cab, knowing damn well she isn’t going to be able to stay away from having at least a couple of glasses now when she’s finally off work for a whole day.   
  


“I’m so sorry we’re late..!” Maca grimaces apologetically as she drops her purse next to her chair, puts Rosa down into the smaller chair on the short side of the table and takes a seat. 

“No worries, I got here just five minutes ago myself.” Rizos smiles. The blonde is struggling to get her trench coat off when a waitress approaches their table,

”Are you ready to order, ladies?” 

“Oh, yes! I’ll just have a glass of water to drink, and…” Rizos gaze drops to the options once more, ”I’ll have number seven, the salmon, please.” She smiles at the waitress and Maca looks up from her own menu,

“Sorry, but are there any vegan options?” Usually, there aren’t many but to her pleasant surprise, the waiter is quick to answer,

“We’ve got an amazing walnut salad, topped with pomegranate, apples and our homemade dressing. We’ve also got a plant based bolognese, made from soybeans, on our own homemade pasta…” 

“I’ll have the first one you mentioned, the salad,” She smiles before she adds, ”and a glass of wine, please.” 

Rizos cocks a brow as if she just ordered the strongest drink they have on the menu. 

“And for the little princess?” 

“Is it possible to get a kid sized portion of the pasta?”

“Sure thing, it’s on the kids menu!” The waitress nods,

“Thanks!” Maca closes the menu and hands it over to the lady, who’s just finished noting their orders. 

”Your drinks will be right out.” When she has left, Rizos turns back to Maca,

“So how did it go yesterday?” She asks, eager to know every single detail.

”Well, it all went… fine, I think.” 

”You think?” The brunette cocks a brow,

”Well… Rosa had a nightmare for the first time yesterday…” she sighs, ”I asked her if Zulema had done something but she said no, so… at least she’s not the reason.” 

”There’s a first for everything!” Rizos smiles, ”She’s becoming a big girl and it’s part of growing up.” 

“No, she seems… Well, she doesn’t say that much unless it suits her,” maca says “She sent me a rather strange text though…” 

“Strange how?”

They get interrupted as the same waitress that took their order, now approaches them with their drinks. 

“There you go..!” She places the drinks in front of them and smiles. Maca nods gratefully while Rizos thanks her before she disappears again. 

“I think—“ she hesitates, “I think she might be flirting with me…” she half-whispers and Rizos suddenly snorts out loud at that,

“Flirting?! Why? What did she write to you?” She laughs and tried to grab her friend’s phone but Maca is faster and snatches it out of her reach, 

“She— Well…” she starts, her cheeks turned rosy, “She said I look good in denim…” 

“Well, you do! She’s right.” She shrugs, “take it as a compliment.” She smiles and nudges her shoulder. Maca worries her lip between her teeth, not sure her friend quite gets it. 

”She could have just written ’Hi, it’s Zulema’, though…” she mutters,

”You’re overanalyzing, _again_ , babe..!” Rizos chuckles and places a hand on top of hers on the table, “Is this also flirting to you?” Maca throws her a glare,

“No, because I know you and your intentions. I have no idea what Zulema is thinking.” 

“She’s probably just trying to make you loosen up a little. You can be pretty uptight and proper in your ways, and from what you’ve told me about her, she seems like the opposite type of person.” Rizos assures, a little more genuine this time, ”Speaking of flirting, you need to get laid.” 

“Rizos!!” Maca exclaims in horror, pointing at Rosa with her eyes, 

“She doesn’t understand, Maca.” She sighs, “This is exactly what I mean, you worry too much. You need some stress-relief.” 

“Shut up! No.” She shakes her head, “No, I’m not like you and your one night stands that you pick up from the club.” She denies before taking a sip of her wine,

“ _Vale, vale…”_ the brunette chuckles, “Oh, since you brought it up, do you wanna join me to the club tonight at least? You do have a babysitter nowadays after all..!” 

“I can’t…” she sighs sadly, “I can’t ask Zulema to watch her on such short notice again. Besides, I think I need a day on the couch, as far away as possible from people after all these days of work.”

“Fair enough.” The brunette nods 

Their food arrives and they change the subject, from the babysitter to work and from work to Rizos’ new boyfriend. A relationship that probably won’t last longer than a couple of weeks, but Maca is happy for her. Rizos had been lonely lately and she knows that feeling all too well. She would just never admit it. 

Once they’ve finished their delicious lunch, and gone through every subject they could come up with between heaven and earth, Rizos eyes dart to her phone. 

“Damn, I need to be back home at three…” the brunette sighs, “I’m sorry, but I gotta ditch. Do you need a ride?” 

“Oh, it’s… It’s okay, we’ll just take a cab, don’t wo—” the blonde starts but gets interrupted mid-sentence,

“No, I insist! I’m driving past your neighborhood anyway.” She smiles as she gets up from her chair. Maca throws Rosa a glance. 

“Please..?” The little girl begs and Rizos walks over to join her in giving Maca the biggest puppy eyes possible. She lets out an amused scoff, admitting she’s been defeated. 

“ _Bueno,_ get in the car, Rosita.” She smiles and mimics a thank you to her friend.   
  


* * *

  
Zulema decided to spend the day on the bed in her caravan, with her scorpion crawling atop her stomach while scrolling through her phone. It isn’t a lot happening on social media, probably because she doesn’t follow that many people… because she doesn’t like people. 

The caravan was her home. It was gifted to her by Karim and meant to be a hideout when she got out of prison, so that she could go straight back to business. Now that hasn’t happened yet, nor does she plan on making it happen anytime soon. She enjoys having a normal life for once and as long as she feels content, she will keep living this way. 

To her unpleasant surprise, just when she thought she could relax for a moment, her phone rings. It’s Karim. 

“If you’re calling to ridicule me, can you please pick another day cuz I’m—“

“I’ve got a job for you.” He says,

“I don’t want it.” Zulema states without hesitation. He doesn’t listen,

“A contact of mine offers big money for a simple task that you would be perfect for. If done correctly, it’ll be done and over with fast.” Zulema just sighs and he continues, “I need you to kill someone.”

“I’m not doing that.” She shakes her head, “I’m not a murderer.” 

“No?” Karim mocks, “then what did you go to prison for?” He knows it’s a sensitive subject. He’ll do anything to keep the brunette on edge to get a reaction, because he knows how she works. If he can provoke her enough to make her act out of anger, she will no doubt slip back into old habits, which is exactly what he wants. 

“That was different and you know it.” She grumbles,

“A murder is a murder,” he shrugs, lacking any sort of empathy, “besides, you’re _good_ at it, Zulema.” 

”I said, _no.”_ she snaps, ”I already have a job.” Karim suddenly laughs out loud,

”You call that a _job, habibi?_ ” His tone sarcastically sympathetic, “Is that why you’re still living in a caravan and eating noodles for breakfast, lunch _and_ dinner every day?” 

“It’s none of your business how I live my life, _Karim.”_ She is sick and tired of having to say no more than once by now, “I much rather live like this than locked up in a prison cell.” 

“You’ll regret it,” the older man clicks his tongue, “you know that this is all you’re good at. You can’t even babysit a child properly, I don’t have to see it to know. You’re not made for that, you’re made to kill, to handle guns and money. You’re wasting your damn time on that privileged bitch and her spoiled offspring!” 

“ _Calla!_ You know nothing about them or what I’m capable of! Leave me alone for once! You’re getting too old for arguments like this anyway…” 

Zulema barely knows them either in all honesty, but right now, they felt closer to her than Karim had been for the past ten years, while she was rotting away in prison without him visiting even once. He had no right to refer to them that way. 

“That’s the thing, _Zulemita_. I know exactly what you’re capable of. The money you could make with those skills of yours and all the fun you could have while doing it is something you really should take into consideration and I mean it. That woman uses you as her slave so that she can go on with her lush, plastic life and only pays you what she thinks you’re worth.” Zulema doesn’t know what to answer to that, maybe he had a point? Karim notices and takes advantage of it, “You’re worth more than that. You deserve to be able to decide how much you make and if you go back to what you do best, you’ll be making more money in one week than that rich blonde has made her entire life.” 

She suddenly frowns at the last sentence,

“How do you know that she’s blonde?” 

“The same way I know that you’re babysitting. I have eyes everywhere, you should know that by now…” he says calmly,

“Are your people spying on me?!” She exclaims angrily. _Unbelievable_. He rudely ignores her question once again,

“Now, consider the offer. If not for the money, perhaps to make you feel less useless.” 

He hangs up before she has the chance to yell at him so she slams the phone to the couch and screams into the void out of frustration. He knows her too well and it bothers her more than anything. She _does_ feel useless as a babysitter, she just won’t let it get to her. She is pretty good at not overthinking or dwelling over her emotions. Most of the time she just represses them. 

She didn’t think it was going to be hard to stay away from Karim and his offers; the “dark side”. She thought she would be more motivated than ever to stay on the right path after she got out of prison and finally had a chance to start over but all of a sudden, she isn't. She knows that he is right and it is eating at her at rapid speed. She is well aware that she is good with a gun and smarter than most when she wants to; when she is encouraged to make an effort. She is an excellent liar and able to manipule on a professional level. She knows she would feel better about herself if she did things she knows she is good at. 

She gets up from the couch. She needed to get out of here, far away from her thoughts, and what could possibly be better than liquor and loud music in this case? 

Just half an hour later, she’s standing outside a club, paying to get in before she heads straight for the bar. She’s not much for dancing, but the vibe at nightclubs always put her in a more relaxed state of mind. Not to mention the whiskey. The fact that Karim hated the thought of her drinking only made her thirstier. 

The dance floor is crowded, the lights neon pink and the DJ’s taste in music surprisingly good. But none if it is enough to get her mind off the things Karim said on the phone. Her fingers are itching at this point. It’s like something within her keeps trying to convince her that she knows he is right. She _does_ know that he’s right, it’s the urge to give in that she’s trying to fight. 

Three women come up next to her in the half-full bar and Zulema throws them a glance. They’re young, noisy and annoyingly energetic. The brunette closest to Zulema is carrying a purse over her shoulder, just within her reach. It’s tempting. It’s wide open and as her gaze drops into it, she can spot a wallet right on top of the rest of her girly belongings. It’s _such_ an easy target it would almost be a shame if she didn’t lay her hands on it… 

Despite her desperate attempts to hold back, she knows it will happen sooner or later nonetheless, she discreetly sneaks a hand into the woman’s purse at the same time as she calls for the bartender to distract her surroundings. The bartender comes over right when she gets a hold of a wallet and quickly pulls it out of the purse. She orders a whiskey with ice and is just about to hand him the brunette’s card when she feels a pair of eyes boring into her from her left. The taller brunette hasn’t noticed but unfortunately, her friend has and quickly knocks on her shoulder, eyes darting to Zulema as she says something. Her friend turns around and Zulema quickly takes off into the crowd. Not too fast, she’s got too much pride to run. The other woman comes after her, just like she expected that she would, but Zulema got a head start and isn’t too worried about it… until she reaches the exit,

” _Guards!”_ The other brunette suddenly yells, ”Stop that woman!” 

The guard by the door is quick to raise his arm to block the way for Zulema and throws her a stern glare. Zulema gives him a pleading look, 

“Come on man…” she whines, “a kiss and you’ll let me through, _no_?” The other women catch up with her and Zulema knows she fucked up. She is too rusty for this. 

”She stole my wallet,” She clarifies to the guard before switching her focus to Zulema, ”and I’d like it back, _puta_.” 

If she had asked nicely, she would have just given it to her and left. There was no point in arguing about this since she got caught red handed, but the way she addressed her, sparked a little fire in her that she has a hard time controlling. 

“What did you call me?” Zulema asks, taking a step closer to the other woman. The brunette in front of her doesn’t back down,

“You heard me.” She snarls and Zulema can’t help but let out a chuckle, 

“You sure you don’t wanna take that back?” 

The brunette scoffs. Suddenly a fist flies through the air and hits the younger woman straight across her nose. The sudden impact makes her gasp and a hand comes up to cover the aching area before the guard grabs a hold of Zulema’s arm and pulls her back, making her involuntarily stumble away from her. 

“ _Hey!_ ” He warns, looking at both of them. 

“Not my fault her mother never taught her to ask nicely…” Zulema grumbles under her breath. 

“You’re fucking crazy! Give me my damn wallet!” She yells, throwing her hands in the air frustratedly. Zulema rolls her eyes and shoves a hand down her pocket only to pull out the wallet and hurl it at the other woman.

“There,” she drawls, “keep a better eye on your things next time. Your _sapo_ for a friend won’t always be there to do it for you.” 

The brunette aggressively pushes the wallet into the hands of her friend and launches towards her but the guard is faster and steps in between them,

”Both of you, _out.”_ He growls, pointing straight towards the exit, “fights are _not_ tolerated in here.” 

“Way to ruin my night out…” The older woman mutters and the younger one smiles sarcastically,

“Likewise.” She spits. Zulema walks past her, roughly nudging her shoulder on her way out. She lights a cigarette before she’s walked through the doors and when the guard calls on her again, she simply waves at him before leaving. The air outside is significantly colder and the lack of that drink she ordered suddenly makes her feel a little extra bitter.  
  


* * *

The clock strikes ten and Maca has been struggling for an entire hour to get Rosa to sleep. She’s been running around, yelling, crying and protesting all evening. She straight up _refuses_ to go to bed. Maca will not let her sleep in hers since she’s afraid it will become a habit, which it seems to have become already. 

“Rosa, _please_ … I need you to calm down and at least _try_.” Maca pleads to her daughter, who’s currently sitting on the edge of her bed, “Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?” 

Rosa shakes her head. 

“No?” She frowns, “You love bedtime stories..!” 

“No… No story…” the child mumbles and her mother sighs,

“ _Vale,_ how about I open the window and let some fresh air in? It’s pretty warm outside tonight.” 

Rosa shakes her head again.

“No, not the window..!” She whines almost pleadingly and Maca is slightly taken aback,

“ _Cariño,_ what’s wrong?” She doesn’t understand. Rosa’s favorite thing used to be looking out that window and Maca opening it so that she could fall asleep to the sound of the cars on the street outside. Nowadays she wouldn’t even go near it. 

“What if I fall?” She asks, her voice small and full of worry. Maca’s eyes grow slightly,

“Why would you fall? You’ll be fine as long as you don’t climb it.” She frowns,

“But if I do it would hurt…” she pouts and Maca barely knows what to say anymore. 

“But you’re not gonna fall, baby..!” She reassures while stroking her cheek. Were these horrible thoughts also a part of her growing up? 

“Okay…” she mumbles and finally crawls underneath her comforter. Maca tucks a lock behind her ear and kisses her temple before getting back up on her feet.

“Wake me up if you have more nightmares, sweetheart, okay?” She urges before Rosa nods and she switches the lights off.   
  


Finally, silence. Her head is pounding from all the events this day and probably also because of the wine. She hadn’t had alcohol in ages, her body wasn’t used to it. Sighing heavily, she walks over to the cabinet above the microwave in the kitchen to look for painkillers that would put an end to her horrible headache but to her disappointment, she seems to be out of them. 

Luckily, she always keeps a few in her purse for emergencies. She heads out into the hallway to look for them but for some reason she cannot find her purse. She always puts it atop the hatrack, out of reach from Rosa but it’s not there and now when she thinks about it, she cannot recall putting it there when she came home from lunch earlier. Then it hits her. She must have left it in Rizos’ car. 

Great, now there’s no way to get rid of this headache than to try to sleep… but first, she’s going to call Rizos. 

“Hey,” Rizos answers, she sounds surprised, probably because of the hour, “has something happened?” Maca is also rather surprised but by the background noise… she expected to hear club music, not a highway. 

“Hi, oh, no.” she assures, “I just realized I must have forgotten my purse in your car after lunch… It should be in the backseat.” She sighs,

“Ah, alright, I’ll look for it as soon as I get back home. Are you off tomorrow? I can come by and drop it off, if so.” She offers,

“Thank you… I get off at five.” Maca rubs her eyes frustratedly, “Gosh, I can’t believe I left it… I’ve got my entire wallet in there and I’d _never_ let that one out of sight..!” 

Rizos lets out an ironic scoff,

“That’s funny, I just got thrown out of the club because some crazy bitch tried to steal mine…” 


	5. Sapo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry it’s taken so long for me to update. i had a couple of weeks where my mental health was completely wack and that’s the main reason why. I’m back on track though! Thank you for being patient with me and not abandoning this story. It means a lot..! 🥺✨

  
Macarena is up early the next morning. She needs to be at work before eight and Zulema is supposed to come over right before she needs to leave. Rizos has sent her a message to let her know she has found her purse and will come over once she’s back home. 

Despite it only being seven thirty in the morning, someone’s already at the door. 

“Hey,” Zulema shrugs, dressed in an oversized hoodie painted with flames, as the blonde pulls the door open.

“Hi,”

Maca offers her a brief smile before making space for her to enter her home. The brunette smiles back as she moves past her and into the hallway. Rosa is still asleep, so the apartment is unusually quiet. Only the sound of the clock on the kitchen wall and Zulema’s heavy boots against the wooden floor can be heard. 

Zulema had been awake most of the night, thinking about Karim’s words and the kick of adrenaline she was rewarded with while stealing for the first time in years. Not that it went according to plan, but it felt good, it really did. Like sweet nostalgia. 

But that was the problem and she knew she would have to do something about it. Something to suppress the temptation. 

“You’re early.” Maca states, neither bothered nor surprised. The older woman’s brows shoot up and she purses her lips before turning back to the blonde,

“Yeah, I thought we could talk some before you have to leave.” She says. That _does_ take Maca a little by surprise. 

“ _... Vale,”_ The younger woman frowns, and it almost sounds like a question; as if she expects her to elaborate. Zulema suddenly points,

“Kitchen?” 

Maca shrugs,

“Sure.” 

They head into the kitchen and over to the dining table where they take a seat, awkward silence surrounding them as they’ve gotten relatively comfortable. Zulema fiddles with her phone for a moment before she puts it, screen down, on the table, 

“I just wanted to let you know that I can work even if you’re not working,” she blurts out, “if you need help, I mean.” 

Maca barley has the chance to consider it before the other woman speaks again, 

“I know you have a hard time getting Rosa to sleep,” she shrugs, “you wouldn’t have to stress about that if you let me handle it.” 

“Why do you want to work extra?” Maca asks, “Do you need money? We can discuss your salary…”

“No, I—“ Zulema starts, but interrupts herself, “Well, yes. But that’s irrelevant. I _want_ to help.”

“That’s very kind of you, but—“

“ _Please._ ” Zulema insists, almost pleadingly. Maca’s eyes switch between the dark green in front of her, not sure why she seems so desperate.

“... I’ll think about it.” She nods, the corner of her mouth twitching unsurely. The brunette smiles widely. 

“Thank you,” she gets out of her chair, walks around the table and twirls a blonde lock between her fingers on her way out of the room, “I appreciate it.” 

Maca is frozen in her spot. She doesn’t even dare to look in Zulema’s direction before she is out of the room. The babysitter made her nervous, no doubt, but she couldn’t decide whether she felt discomfort or some unfamiliar kind of excitement… She shakes it off, though. 

When she comes back out to the hallway, the brunette has already found her way to Rosa’s bedroom. She throws an eye at the clock and realizes that it actually is time for her to get up, so naturally, she makes her way over to her daughter’s room as well. When she reaches the doorway, she finds Zulema about to reach for Rosa when she turns around and waves at the blonde,

“I got this.” She half-whispers. Maca stays where she is and watches the brunette kneel down next to the sleeping child. She tucks a strand of blonde hair behind her ear, making the younger girl’s features twitch slightly. She’s starting to wake up. As soon as the little girl has cracked her eyes open, Zulema leans forward,

“ _Boo!”_

“... Zulema!!” Rosa exclaims happily before struggling to sit up. She rubs her eyes and looks at her babysitter with a grin spread across her face, “you be with me today?” 

“Yeah, I’m gonna bother you _all_ day, tiger.” She cocks a brow and pokes her forehead before getting back up on her feet, “ _venga_ , you should’ve been out of bed two minutes ago.” 

Maca can’t help but beam as she watches their interaction. Rosa starts climbing out of bed in her pink pajamas and Zulema turns to the blonde, whose face drops immediately to hide the accidental smile. 

“Aren’t you a little late, _guapa?”_ The brunette smirks, pointing at the phone in her hand. Maca scoffs at the way she addresses her but lights the screen and realizes she has completely lost track of time.

“Oh _shit…”_ she grumbles and joggs over to the hallway, throws her coat on before quickly shoving her feet into a neat pair of boots. 

“Rosa baby, do you wanna come and kiss mommy goodbye?” Maca shouts, trying to sound calm when talking to her daughter but fails like she always does when she’s stressed… 

Zulema picks her and walks out into the hallway, making her get to her a little faster. Rosa holds her arms stretched out towards her mom as they approach her and the brunette isn’t sure whether she should hand her over or put her down… She doesn’t have much time to think though, before the blonde walks over and kisses her daughter goodbye while she’s still in her arms. Zulema’s nervous, green eyes intensively watch as the younger woman suddenly leans in and places a kiss on her daughter’s cheek, a little too close to her own face, making her shift slightly on her feet. Maca doesn’t even notice Zulema reacting to it, but turns around just as fast to open and walk out the door,

“I’ll be back tonight, _cariño..!”_ She waves, and offers Zulema a brief smile before leaving.

  
As soon as the door is shut, she drops the kid to the floor. 

“ _A ver,_ ” she sighs, “Do you need to be fed or—“

“I pee.” Rosa interrupts, pulling on her pajamas and Zulema immediately rubs her eyes. She _really_ doesn’t enjoy this part. 

“ _Vale,_ you know what?” She picks the kid back up and takes her to the bathroom. She puts her down right beyond the threshold and points, “This is a toilet. This is where you pee, not your pants.” 

Rosa just looks at it, then at her pants. The brunette blows a raspberry, she has no idea, does she?

“Here,” she lifts her up another time just to swiftly remove her pajamas and throws the diaper in the trash before placing the child atop the toilet, “Now do whatever you need to do.” 

“But I already pee…” Rosa says, a little confused, dangling her feet from where she’s sitting. That’s true. She was right… The older woman sighs. 

“ _Sí_ , but next time, you tell me when you need to go, _vale?_ ” 

“ _Vale…”_ Rosa mumbles agreeingly. Zulema offers her a forced smile before helping her down and walking back out into the hallway,

“Now, come on kid,” Zulema urges, “Get dressed. Underpants, pants, shirt, jacket… _Todo_.”

“We go out?” Rosa asks, excitedly.

“Yeah, we’re gonna get you something else than rabbit food.” She mumbles as she puts her boots on. Rosa waddles over to the older woman in the hallway and grabs a shoe. Zulema turns to look at her only to find a shoe shoved up into her face. 

“Help.” Her little voice says. 

Zulema’s focus shifts from the shoe to the child,

“Just put your foot in it,” She frowns, “it’s not that hard.”

Rosa drops it to the floor and proceeds to stare at it before shoving her right foot into the left shoe. Zulema sighs heavily. 

“Does that look right to you?” She mocks. Rosa lifts her gaze to look at her, then shakes her head. Zulema waits for her to do something about it, to give it another try, to make it right, but the big green eyes just keep looking at her. 

“... _vale.”_ She mutters, realizing that if she wants to be at the store sometime today, she is going to have to help her. She walks around to stand behind the little girl before leaning over her to reach her feet. She grabs one of them and roughly pulls the shoe back off, grabs the other shoe and puts it on instead. Rosa puts her foot down and beams as she feels the difference. 

“Tha’s right!” She exclaims. The corner of Zulema’s mouth twitches slightly. 

“ _Venga,_ next one.” She nods towards the other shoe. Rosa picks it up, drops to her bum on the floor and clumsily tries to get her foot into it. It takes a minute, but she succeeds eventually and tilts her head up to grin at her babysitter. 

“Did it!!” She shouts happily and Zulema lets out an half-amused huff,

“What do you want, an applause?” She scoffs. 

Rosa doesn’t mind. She’s too happy about the shoes to think of anything else. She pushes herself up from the floor and runs over to grab her jacket. 

Once they get out of the apartment and out on the street, Rosa holds out her hand. Zulema looks at it, clearly puzzled. 

“What?” She snarls, Rosa frowns as if Zulema’s being silly and takes a step closer. She reaches up and wraps her little hand around Zulema’s three first fingers, a move Zulema is all but prepared for. Her body goes all stiff and has to fight the urge to snatch her hand away. She is uncomfortably unfamiliar with holding people’s hands, the only thing keeping her from retiring, is the fact that it’s Rosa. The little girl casually starts walking and Zulema is forced to relax a bit to be able to follow. 

The store is pretty close. It only takes about ten minutes to walk there. A little longer if you’re a three-year-old child. They walk hand in hand all the way and Zulema can’t help but let her eyes fall to the blonde head next to her every so often. One minute she’s leaping energetically, the next she’s distracted by pinecones and walks unnecessarily slow. Suddenly she points at the ground in front of them,

“Look!” She gasps. Zulema’s eyes follow her finger. It’s a little frog on the damp sidewalk. She lets go of her hand and runs up to it. It jumps, but she manages to catch it. Zulema doesn’t even have a chance to open her mouth to say something before the child comes back with the frog cupped in her hands. 

“Look, _tía!_ ” She says, eyes full of wonder, completely in awe of the little animal, “I keep him?” 

She’s tempted to say yes, because the mere thought of Maca finding a live frog in the apartment amuses her more than it probably should… But obediently, she resists. 

“No.” she answers simply, thinking it was going to be easier to watch the young girl lose her spark than it actually is. Pouting, she walks over to the grass, puts the frog back down on the ground and returns to hold the brunette’s hand. The rest of the way, she’s rather quiet. As if she’s waiting for Zulema to change her mind. 

They find the store and Zulema grabs a cart only to be able to store the child somewhere. Her nerves were too on edge from all the hand holding. She lifts Rosa by her jacket into it and pushes it through the automatic doors. 

“So _,_ do you like cheese?”

“What?” Rosa looks like a whole question mark, 

“... are you kidding me right now?”

“Wha’s that?” She asks but Zulema just blows a raspberry and heads towards the dairy section. There’s no way this kid is going to die without ever having tried cheese. She won’t allow it. 

”For lunch today you will have grilled cheese and it’s not up for discussion.” The brunette states. Rosa doesn’t reply. She’s too busy enjoying the cart ride as Zulema pulls up next to the shelf, ”grab the cheese.” 

”Wha’s a cheese?!” She whines, seemingly frustrated that Zulema didn’t understand her confusion before. The older woman groans.

”Forget it.” She grumbles, grabs the cheese herself and hurls it into the cart next to Rosa. They continue their shopping spree down the aisles, grabbing white toast and ordinary butter before they arrive at the candy section. 

“Now, I’m genuinely terrified of what your answer will be,” Zulema sighs, “but have you ever had candy?” 

Rosa looks at the chocolate bars and bags of gummies before she turns back to her babysitter,

“Mama says no.” She says.

“I know, but have you ever tried it?” 

“... yes,” she replies but the uncertainty in her voice makes Zulema’s eyes squint suspiciously,

“What kind of candy?” She’s testing her. The child scans the aisle for a bit before pointing at one specific bag… Zulema leans over to inspect it. It’s sugar free, of course. What did she expect? 

“I take that as a no,” she mutters.

She grabs two bags of her personal favorites, some fruity gummies that she is sure Rosa will love and a bar of milk chocolate before shoving them into her pocket. She doesn’t intend to teach Rosa how to steal but the little girl is very observant and doesn’t let it go unnoticed,

“ _Tía,_ ” she frowns, “pay..!” she reminds her, as if she is the child.

“You don’t have to pay for everything…” The brunette mumbles and keeps walking as if it never happened. Rosa doesn’t reply. Her little brain is too busy processing all the new information she’s been fed lately. 

“Oye _loca_ , I’m setting you free. I need to be able to fit the rest of the things we need behind these prison bars on wheels.” The older woman suddenly says and lifts Rosa out of the metal cart by her arms. 

“But I don’ wanna walk..!” The child whines as she’s lowered to the ground, pouting grumpily. 

“Well you don’t have a choice.” Zulema states and proceeds to look for more things yummier than grass and water, or whatever it is Maca has in her fridge. 

Rosa looks around. The store is gigantic in her eyes. The shelves are towering around her and the people have to veer not to stumble over her. She throws Zulema a glance and finds her searching for something among the top shelves that Rosa cannot even see, so she takes the opportunity to go on her own adventure…

She rounds the corner of the aisle to go and look for the toy section. She should be able to find it, she thinks. It’s the only part of the store that she enjoys and her mother always let her look while she was grocery shopping. 

She strolls over to whatever looks colorful and fun around the store. She ends up back in the candy section at first, then the clothing section, but eventually she actually manages to find the toys. Ironically enough, the first thing to catch her eye is a green, glittery sandbag toad. She picks it up and looks at it in awe, as if she’s been searching for it all her life, before hugging it tightly. 

In a different part of the store, Zulema turns around, ready to ask Rosa a question but finds the floor behind her empty. Her eyes start scanning her surroundings. Shit. Rosa was out of sight. 

“Rosa?” She calls, trying to keep her voice down not to draw any unnecessary attention, “ _Rosa..!”_ She lets go of the cart and walks around the aisle to look for her, though without success. Unbelievable. She has lost the kid.

“ _Puta mierda—“_ she mumbles for herself, cursing herself for letting her out of sight despite knowing her favorite thing to do is to _run off._

But it only takes a moment for her to figure out where a child her age would go. Of _course_ she was in the children’s section. She takes the cart and pushes it all the way down seven aisles, only to find Rosa in the middle of two, cuddling a plushie. 

“ _Hey!_ ” Zulema exclaims, annoyance apparent on her face, maybe even a bit of worry, “You can’t just run off like that, _salvaje!”_

“ _Tía,_ ” Rosa completely ignores her complaints, “I have him?” She shows her the toad she has found. It’s heavy from all the sand it is stuffed with so she has to use both hands as she holds it up in front of her.

“No, we’re here to buy necessities, not stuffed amphibians…” she grumbles and roughly grabs onto Rosa’s arm, causing her to drop the toy. It breaks her heart.

“ _No, tía, mi sapo!!”_ She cries loudly, desperately trying to reach for it as Zulema shoves her back into the cramped space in the cart. 

”I don’t have money for that,” Zulema frowns, driving the cart away from the aisle, making the toad disappear out of sight. The child wails and the brunette cannot deny that the pure devastation in her voice does tug at her heartstrings, ”It’s just a toy.” she tries. She isn’t very good at this. 

Rosa keeps crying and as they reach the checkouts. Zulema gets an idea, stops and leans to her level to look her in the eye, 

“Listen,” she starts as she’s managed to gather herself slightly, “I have a little friend at home that I think you would like. I’ll bring her tomorrow, okay?”

“Is she a toad?” Rosa sniffles,

“No,” Zulema admits before leaning in to whisper, “She’s way cooler.” She winks and Rosa finally giggles. 

“Okay…” she nods and wipes her tears with her whole hand. 

“Okay?” Zulema smiles, genuinely, for the first time in a while, “Let’s go home.”   
  


* * *

  
Once they’re back home, have made food and eaten, it’s only an hour before Maca will come back home from work. Rosa spends that time playing with her dolls and drawing little houses and stickmen with her crayons in her room, while Zulema is trying to figure out if she has got enough money to pay for electricity in her caravan this month. 

She hates being poor. She grew up poor but ever since she ended up in the hands of Karim, she had always had quite a lot of money. She sold drugs like a professional, even though she only did it for him as a favor at first, for being given a roof over her head and food for the day when she had nothing. 

That is another thing that keeps her tempted to work for him again. The money. If she just did this one thing he asked her for, perhaps she would have enough money to live her own life, and buy food more luscious than bread and noodles, next to this job of hers… 

Her thoughts are interrupted as the door to the apartment cracks open and Rosa comes running out of her room,

“ _Mama!”_ She squeals as she throws herself into the arms of the blonde in the doorway. Zulema gets up from the couch, slowly approaching them as Maca is busy covering her daughter in kisses. The younger woman’s gaze eventually comes back up and meets the brunette’s. Zulema isn’t wearing her hoodie anymore, just a tight, black shirt.

“Has everything worked out well?” She asks,

“Yeah,” Zulema answers shortly, “Perfectly.” 

“Good… Great.” Maca nods and puts the keys on the little table in the hall before taking her jacket and shoes off.

“I saw frogs today..!” Her little girl exclaims, jumping up and down as her mother makes her way into the kitchen. Her words go unheard though, as the blonde is met by foods she never expected to see in her home on the counter,

“Zulema..?” She calls out and the older woman is quick to join her in the room, “what’s all this?” 

“Oh shi—“ she covers her mouth, realizing swearing in front of Rosa when Maca is around might not be very smart or appreciated. The kitchen is a mess, “I made lunch and got carried away talking to Rosa… I’ll clean it up.” 

“I wasn’t talking about the mess. I assumed you were gonna clean that up. I meant _this_ ,” Maca grimaces as she picks up the white loaf of bread from the kitchen counter. 

“ _Oh…”_ Zulema pauses, “Well, that’s— That’s mine. I need food while I’m here too, _no?_ ” She lies and continues putting the things away. 

“... Well, yeah,” Maca blinks, “I suppose. As long as Rosa doesn’t—“

The doorbell suddenly goes off before she can finish her sentence. It must be Rizos who has come to hand back her purse. 

“Excuse me for a moment,”

Maca walks over to unlock the door and as she sways it open, she’s met by dark curly hair, a wide smile and her purse, as expected. The blonde sighs blissfully, relief washing over her, 

“Thank you so much,” she sighs sincerely,

“No worries,” Rizos smiles as she hands it over to her friend, “it was in the backseat of my car like you said.” 

“I haven’t had wine in a _very_ long time and I’ve had so much going on these days, I—“

“Oh cut it,” the brunette laughs, “We all forget stuff, you can’t be a hundred percent organized twenty-four-seven.” Maca just huffs at that, “How’s my little monster?” 

“Oh,” Rosa was keeping Zulema company in the kitchen, “Speaking of—” She turns back into the apartment again, “ _Zulema, there’s someone I’d like you to meet..!”_ She shouts. 

“Oh, she’s here?” Rizos asks, a little quieter not to sound impolite to the woman she was about to meet. Maca nods excitedly. 

Footsteps approach them and all Rizos can see at first is black, almost familiar hair, as Zulema is trying to get Rosa to let go of her leg. She then looks up and when their eyes meet, the exact same thought crosses their minds,

_Oh shit._

Realization hits them both at the same time. Rizos frowns, subtly, not to pull Maca into this and Zulema’s features go from surprised to amused and can’t help but chuckle at the irony of it all. 

“Zulema, this is Rizos, my best friend who helped me hire you.” Maca says, and it’s not until she looks at them that she notices that something is a little off, “Rizos, this is Zulema. The babysitter.” she continues, a little hesitant. 

Zulema purses her lips, eyes squinted as if she’s daring the brunette to be the first one to say something. 

“Hi,” Rizos greets, dryly. 

“... Am I missing something here? Do you two know each other?” Maca suddenly interrupts, eyes switching between the two women who seem to have some kind of staring competition. 

“No,” Zulema states, not even throwing Maca a glance before reaching out a hand towards Rizos, “Zulema.”

“Nice to meet you.” The other woman mutters, her voice dripping with sarcasm despite her half-assed attempt to hide it from her friend. They shake hands for no longer than a second. 

Maca is still just frowning, extremely confused as she watches the intense interaction. 

“Anyhow,” Rizos suddenly speaks, “I should get going. Long day tomorrow.” She offers Maca a quick smile before stepping away from the door.

“Oh, _pues, vale…”_ Maca stutters. It wasn’t like Rizos to leave so quickly, “See you later?” 

The brunette nods and throws Zulema a last glance before she leaves. Zulema’s eyes have been on her the entire time and it sends a chill down her spine as she heads down the stairs. 

Maca closes the door and looks at Zulema. The older woman simply sighs, raises her brows and turns to her boots on the floor,

”I suppose I should get going as well…” she mumbles.

Maca’s phone suddenly pings, making both women’s eyes dart to her pocket. She picks it up, it’s from Rizos. _She was just here… What could she possibly want?_

**Zulema is the woman at the bar. She’s the one who tried to steal my wallet the other night. She literally punched me in the face and was horrible to all of us.  
** **You need to get rid of her ASAP.**

Maca stares at the text for a moment, her eyes slightly widened. She throws Zulema an eye, thinking she’s discreet, but their eyes meet. Dark eyes never left her in the first place. 

**What are you talking about??**

She knows exactly what she is talking about but she’s too shocked to believe that it would be true,

**Get her out of there before you regret it. Don’t leave Rosa with her again. I don’t know what she‘s after but I don’t think she applied for this job because of her ‘love for kids’… I’m sorry I didn’t take all the things you told me seriously.  
** **Fire her. Ahora.**

Maca’s stomach turns. Zulema finds it rather interesting to watch her nervously fiddle with her phone and tilts her head slightly in amusement. Maca decides it’s better to not text right next to the woman in question and moves towards the kitchen and Zulema’s eyes follow her as she passes. The blonde can feel those deep green eyes boring into her as she walks,

“She told you,” Zulema husks, right when Maca walks past the threshold and it sounds more like a statement than a question, “didn’t she?” Maca’s heart starts pounding. She takes a deep breath and gathers some courage before she turns around, 

”You tried to steal my best friend’s _wallet…_ _Why?_ ” She asks, her voice weak,

“I didn’t know she was your friend.” Zulema shrugs bluntly.

“That’s not the point!” Maca exclaims frustratedly, “I can’t trust you around the house and with my daughter, knowing you’re a _thief..!_ ”

Macarena calling her a thief strikes a nerve. Karim can say it all he wants, because she didn’t care what he thought of her. But for some reason, what Maca thinks of her _does_ matter to her.

“You better keep an eye on your things then, _no?_ ” She winks sarcastically, “because we both know you won’t fire me. You need me.” Her tone is tauntingly confident, but she’s right.

Maca snorts and is just about to say something when the brunette turns around as if the conversation is finished. 

“See you tomorrow, _Rubia.”_ She blows a kiss before closing the door behind her and as she walks down the stairs she pulls out her phone.

She stops right outside the building. There aren’t a lot of people named Estefanía in the area and Rizos number isn’t hard to find. She copies it to send her a simple message. One that could easily be interpreted as a warning... 

**Sapo.**

When the message has been delivered, she goes straight to dialing a number and puts the phone against her ear. The person on the other end is quick to pick up but Zulema is even quicker to speak, 

“What exactly is in it for me?”

“I knew you would ask…” Karim muses victoriously.


	6. Elsa

**Sapo.**

Maca stares at the screen in disbelief before Rizos turns her phone back around, making Maca’s gaze fall back on her.

“No,” Rizos states, “No, she is not coming over today.” 

“I’m working! Do you have a better option in mind?” Maca whines, pinching the bridge of her nose before rubbing her eyes. She has clearly already given up, “She’s never done anything bad to Rosa or me for that matter. I went through all of my things yesterday and she doesn’t seem to have touched anything, let alone stolen anything… Perhaps it was a one time thing? Maybe she was drunk?” Maca rambles but Rizos stands her ground.

“No, she wasn’t drunk. I was tipsier than she was, yet I behaved more civilized than her…” the brunette mumbles, “she didn’t just steal my wallet, she punched me in the face and was a total bitch. And how do you explain this message? Where did she even get my number?” 

“I don’t know, Rizos… but Rosa seems to really like her. She has been fond of her since day one and honestly, I don’t really know why,” Maca frowns, “You know I thought she was odd from the moment she stepped through the door but Rosa was drawn to her immediately... I wouldn’t know how to explain it all to Rosa if I fired her.” 

“Sounds like witchcraft to me,” her friend scoffs, not liking this in the least, “Rosa will get over it.”

“Rizos—“ 

“ _Maca_ , she’s a nut job,” Rizos exclaims, as if she’s tired of her friend not getting it, “Just get a new babysitter!” Macarena sighs. 

“Easier said than done. Besides, there is no way I can find one before noon…” she mutters, not really in the mood to go over all of this again, “... and honestly, I think she deserves a chance.”

“A _chance?!”_

“ _Rizos!_ Listen to me! She hasn’t done anything to me or Rosa. Whatever problem you two have with each other doesn’t concern us. That’s _your_ problem.” Maca exclaims and she surprises herself as the words leave her mouth. Rizos brows shoot up too as she leans back in her chair, clearly impressed that Maca finally has the guts to speak up. 

“So you’re just gonna wait until the day it happens?” She asks and corrects her posture, “Well, I’m taking Rosa tonight at least, _punto final_ .”   
  


* * *

_“She’s just a street rat.”_ Was what Karim said over the phone yesterday. He told her about this woman, who became a drug dealer when she got fired from her job at a clothing store downtown. She has been doing this for a year now but keeps making mistakes. One of the biggest ones being threatening to go to the police if she doesn’t get a raise. She is temperamental and problematic to say the least and at this point she’s putting the whole business at risk and is nothing but a loose end in their eyes. And they can’t have a loose end. 

Zulema was offered a large sum of money. An almost irresistible amount for someone who just got out of prison… 

It seemed so easy, the way he explained it made it seem like a piece of cake. He reassured her that he and his men will have her back, that all the money would be hers and she would never have to do this again. She knows that he was convinced she would love it and get stuck in it once she starts. It is a trap, she is not stupid. 

She doesn’t know why her current situation is holding her back. She doesn’t know why her relationship with Macarena and Rosa affects her this way. It is her job, nothing else. She doesn’t have a close relationship to them, but perhaps it is the fact that she would want to, that is holding her back… 

It’s close to 2 PM when the doorbell rings and Macarena walks over, prepared to greet her best friend behind the door but once it is pushed open, she is not met by Rizos. It is Zulema, and in her hands she is holding a little cardboard box. Her heart skips a beat. 

“... Hey?” She frowns and shifts on her feet, “I told you I didn’t need—“ 

Zulema cuts her off,

“I know, but I made a promise to Rosa...” She shrugs before her eyes wander south, “where are you going, anyway?” 

Maca stands dumbfounded, suddenly looking down at her own coat and purse. Her eyes come back to meet the darker in front of her before a deep sigh leaves her lungs,

“I’m going to work…” she admits and unexpectedly, the corner of Zulema’s mouth curls.

“I’m sure you weren’t just gonna leave Rosa all alone?” She tilts her head and squints her eyes, the way she does when she tries to read people, or when she already knows, “you replaced me?” 

“No! I—“ she tries to quickly come up with an excuse but there’s no use. Zulema has already figured it out. She chuckles and Maca breaks the eye contact, “Rizos is on her way here…” The brunette simply nods. 

“Scared I might steal your child?” She mocks and Maca grimaces with embarrassment. 

“Give me a minute.” She says as she picks her phone out of her pocket. She turns around and walks towards the living room as tone after tone rings through the phone. 

“Hey, I’m right outside..!” Rizos breathes when she picks up and Maca can hear the car door closing in the background.

“Don’t come in.” She says, low enough for Zulema to not hear it.

“What?”

“Zulema is here.” She clarifies and prepares for the brunette to lash out at her,

“What do you mean? Didn’t you tell her—“ 

“Yes, I did!” She throws the babysitter an eye just to make sure she’s not listening, “Rizos, trust me. Just go home.” 

“No way! I’m coming up and _she_ is going home!” The brunette growls and her furious footsteps are heard through the phone. There is no stopping her now. 

“Estefanía, please..! She’s here for Rosa. She brought her—” she throws the other woman another glance. She’s looking at her now, “... a gift.” 

“Oh, how lovely. What is it? A bomb?” She mocks and roughly flings the entrance door open. Maca sighs, frustrated that she won’t listen. She never listens. The call ends before the door behind Zulema is slammed wide open much like the first one. 

“ _Get the hell out of here,”_ She growls, aggressively pointing towards the staircase. Zulema takes a moment to nonchalantly observe her before she cocks a brow and it makes the other woman’s blood boil, “and don’t come back. You’re fired!”

The older woman’s brows shoot up and a scoff unexpectedly escapes her,

“Oh… am I now, _Rubia?_ ” She asks tauntingly before turning her head to the blonde. Maca is at a loss for words. She doesn’t want to take anyone’s side but she doesn’t exactly have a choice right now. Rizos gives her an urging glare,

“Uh—“ she stutters. She is honestly tired of letting Rizos control her life. What business of hers is this anyway? “... No. No you’re not.” She finds herself saying, as if the words accidentally fall out of her mouth. Rizos eyes grow before she scoffs, _loudly_ , and Maca can’t recall ever seeing her this offended. 

Zulema slowly turns back around to face the brunette once again and walks up so close, even Rizos has a hard time keeping their eyes locked. 

“You heard her.” Zulema muses, her voice dark and victorious. Rizos gives Maca a last, disappointed shake of her head before she storms out of the apartment. She cannot _believe_ that her best friend just did her like that. 

“Shit…” Maca mumbles and runs a hand through her hair as stress starts growing on her. She knows that this is a problem she is going to have to deal with later. Rizos is not the person to let things like this slip. She holds grudges for ages. 

She checks her phone to see if she’s got any new calls or messages from the friend in question but instead, she realizes she should have left the apartment ten minutes ago. She’s late, “ _shit!”_

“Go. I’ve got this,” Zulema reassures gently before nodding towards the door, “ _venga.”_

“ _Vale, vale…”_ Maca breathes and she stresses to find her keys, “Rosa ate an hour ago and there’s fruit in the first cabinet left to the fridge, in case she gets hungry later. She’s been a little off today...” Zulema nods quickly to urge her to leave before the blonde nods in response and disappears out the door. 

She turns around, facing the living room. It’s unusually quiet. No child climbing the furniture or running from room to room. 

“ _Salvaje?”_ She calls out, but receives no answer. She leaves the carton on the table and walks over to the little girl’s room and knocks on the door, “cheer up, grumpy.” 

“ _Go ‘way…_ ” a little voice says on the other side of the door. Zulema’s brows shoot up in surprise.

“Are you challenging me?” Zulema asks, “As if I can’t just walk in and lift you out of there, you weigh like, what? Two kilos?” Rosa doesn’t respond. The brunette sighs. 

“Is this about the damn amphibian?” She asks. Still no reply. She tries to be patient, she really does, but she can only push herself so much. She flings the door open, tired of waiting for an invitation, and finds Rosa sitting with her tiger plushie on the bed, “Hey,” she snaps her fingers to get the child's attention and receives a glare in return. 

“Toad. Is a toad.” She corrects angirly, brows meeting her eyes. Zulema snorts but can’t help but grin at the sight. The furious expression on the kid’s face is priceless.

“I thought you were over that?” She says and Rosa goes back to staring at her stuffed animal, “guess what…” The older woman suddenly whispers. Big curious eyes snap up and meet hers, “I brought you one.” 

Rosa suddenly beams like it is Christmas day. She throws her tiger aside and jumps down from the bed. 

“Where? Where is it?!” She starts looking for it and the babysitter opens the door up a little wider,

“In the living room.” 

Rosa sprints out of her room and when she spots the little box atop the coffee table, she unsteadily approaches it with anticipation only a child can feel. Zulema comes over and crouches down next to her in front of the table before giving the excited girl a wink.

“Ready?” 

Rosa nods eagerly, so the brunette takes a steady hold of the lid and lifts it up and off the box, revealing the animal she has brought with her. Rosa’s expression changes slightly as the older woman lifts it out of the box by the tail and carefully places it in the palm of her own hand. 

”Wha’s that??” Rosa asks under her breath and takes a step back from the black, intimidating creature, “That’s not toad…” 

“A scorpion.” Zulema smiles, as she does so rarely. 

Rosa watches from afar how it comes to life as the older woman pokes its tail, urging it to move.

”Here,” Zulema insists as she reaches over but the child takes a step back. She gives the older woman an insecure glance but receives a simple nod back. She gathers some courage to carefully tiptoe back over to them and Zulema lets the animal crawl from her hands to Rosa’s smaller ones, ”she’s as kind as a frog.” 

Rosa is nervous but too intrigued to pull away, as she watches the scorpion wander onto her skin. It makes its way across the back of her hand and up along her arm. It tickles a little. Zulema grins at the sight, 

“Do you like her?” She asks and the little girl’s eyes dart up to meet hers. Then she nods, “I wish I could say you can keep her but I don’t think your posh mother would approve of that…”

Rosa never understands more than half of the things Zulema says so she just keeps watching how the animal’s little legs move, one at a time, tail and claws held high. 

“She’s like you..!” Rosa suddenly exclaims and Zulema’s eyes dart up to observe the child,

“ _Como yo?”_ She cocks a brow, “Why?” 

Rosa just shrugs innocently, but Zulema knows that the kid is smarter than she has the ability to express. Black clothes or black shell, pitchers high or walls up, they were both dark and capable of stinging and Rosa had quickly picked up on the resemblance between the two. 

“Wha’s her name?” Zulema thinks for a moment and realizes she has never taken the time to name it. Honestly, the thought had never even crossed her mind. Giving an arachnid a name was a little too sentimental for her liking. 

“She doesn’t have a name.” She answers bluntly, expression blank. 

“We name her!” The little girl exclaims and happily lifts the animal into the air, 

“Go ahead,” Zulema shrugs, “You choose.”

“Hm…” Rosa hums, frowning heavily while observing her new little friend on her arm, “Elsa, _como ella!”_

Zulema throws her own sweater a glance as the younger girl points at it. She grimaces,

“On second thought, you don’t...” she sighs, ”Can’t she have a more badass name? She’s a venomous carnivore, not a disney princess.” she whines and Rosa pouts back at her, 

“It _is_ bad ass!” She argues but the babysitter just rolls her eyes. She probably doesn’t even know what ’badass’ means.

“How about… _Barazza_ , _como la asesina en serie?”_ She suggests excitedly. Rosa just looks at her, judgement evident on her face. 

“ _Estás loca, tía…”_ she sighs and shakes her head as if she suddenly turned forty years older. Zulema chuckles,

“ _Vale,_ ” she squints her eyes mischievously as if she just got a bad idea, “should we text your mom and see what she thinks?” Rosa nods eagerly. The brunette pulls the phone out of her pocket, the smug smile never fading from her face. 

  
  


**Rubia, if you got Rosa a puppy, what would you name it?**

“Now we wait.” Zulema tells the kid as she has sent the message but she receives a reply almost immediately,

**_No._ **

Zulema lets out an amused snort,

**It will be hard to teach it “no” if that’s its name…**

It doesn’t take long until the next reply either,

**_Ha-ha. ’No’ is for no puppies._ **

**_I’m not getting Rosa a puppy and neither are you._ **

The older woman cocks a brow. She liked the sound of that. 

**Relax, we haven’t even started dating yet..!**

**_Cállate Zulema. Stop texting me and take care of my daughter. I’m busy._ **

She can’t help but laugh at that. She _loves_ teasing this woman. Rosa has put the scorpion on the floor and lays on her stomach watching it while waiting for the third name suggestion. It has stopped moving by now and lays curled up on the ground. 

“Your mother says my option is better.” Zulema lies and Rosa throws her a glare,

“I don’t believe you…” she mumbles and sits up, “I don’ wanna play with her anymore… she boring.” she whines, her R’s non-existent. 

“ _You’re_ boring.” Zulema scoffs and grabs her little pet to put it back in its cardboard box. Rosa sticks her tongue out but the older woman has already turned around and is on her way out to the kitchen. She puts the box on the counter and spins back around only to meet Rosa in the doorway, 

“So… _Elsa?”_ She asks pleadingly.

“ _De ninguna manera._ ” Zulema states. 

* * *

Maca puts the phone screen down on the desk. She is actually slightly worried she might be met with a kiss and a dog in the doorway once she gets back home. She doesn’t know what to expect from that woman anymore, let alone what it is that she wants. Does she actually like her job or is she after something? Does she just enjoy being a pain in the ass or is she actually flirting? The latter doesn’t even matter in all honesty. Maca is annoyed by it no matter what her intentions are. She seemed to be entertaining Rosa, though. 

The day comes to an end and Macarena is more than ready to go home. She has been working way more than usual the last couple of weeks, not to mention she’s working tomorrow again… There are no new messages or calls from Zulema and perhaps she should not, but she assumes everything has gone well, all things considered. 

When she arrives back home and has parked her car alongside the street, she grabs her bag, locks the vehicle and walks through the dark gate. Once she has soundlessly entered her home, she listens for any kind of noise that would indicate that Rosa is still up, but the only thing audible is the TV on low volume. 

“Zulema?” She calls out as quietly as she can not to wake Rosa, who hopefully is dead asleep by now. No reply. She takes her shoes off and carefully walks towards the living room. She is expecting to find the brunette by the TV or on her phone, but when she peeks into the room she’s met by a surprise to say the least. 

Both Zulema and Rosa have fallen asleep, curled up on the couch, under the same blanket. The babysitter with her head atop the backrest and the child leaning against her arm while the movie “Frozen” is still playing on the big screen. For a moment, all the concerns she had about the brunette disappear as her heart takes a moment to melt from the sight. She takes a moment to just watch and crack a smile before she walks over. She kneels down next to Rosa and strokes her cheek gently. Her daughter starts moving, slowly waking up as she feels her mothers touch. 

”Rosa, _cariño…”_ she whispers, not to wake Zulema, “let’s go to bed.” 

The little girl slowly opens her eyes and looks at her, her mind still a little hazy but takes her mothers hand nonetheless. She walks her over to her room and just as they’re about to step across the threshold, Rosa remembers something and gasps, 

“I made a new friend!” She exclaims. Maca’s brows shoot up, half surprised, 

“Did you now?” She muses as she watches her beam,

“Yes. Her name is Elsa and she is a scormion!” She explains proudly before a yawn grows on her face. 

“Oh, how exciting..!” Maca chuckles, convinced that she’s had another vivid dream, before she lifts her onto the bed, “Have you had a good day?” She asks once Rosa has crawled under the blankets and she nods convincingly, exhaustion consuming her faster than she can reply, “Good…” Maca mumbles, strokes her hair and gets back onto her feet. 

She sneaks out of her daughter's room and heads towards the kitchen, passing the living room and Zulema on the way. She can’t help but throw her a glance. She’s still completely passed out and hasn’t even noticed Rosa’s absence. 

She doesn’t have the heart to wake her up. It’s late and she must be extremely tired to fall asleep on their rather uncomfortable designer couch. She wants to encourage her to lay down but then she would have to wake her and she knows that if she does, the brunette will excuse herself and leave. So she lets her be. 

Once she has reached the kitchen, the first thing that catches her eye is the box on the counter. The little cardboard box that the babysitter arrived with, that Maca assumed was the surprise for Rosa. She cannot help but be curious and decides to take a peek inside…

If it hadn’t been for her extreme willpower not to wake either Zulema or Rosa, she would have screeched at the top of her lungs as light hits the creature at the bottom. But she fumbles to get the lid back on before she stumbles backwards, slaps a hand over her mouth and closes her eyes to try to forget what she just found sitting in her own kitchen. 

Zulema truly is a piece of work… 


	7. Caution

When Zulema wakes up the next morning, it takes about five seconds for her to realize exactly where she is and when she does, she throws the blanket off of herself and quickly pushes herself out of the couch. 

_Shit._

Had Macarena just let her stay overnight? Without even trying to wake her up or ask her to leave? It’s currently eight in the morning, so Maca is without a doubt back home from work. Rosa is nowhere to be seen. The blonde must have taken her to bed as she came home and Rosa must have fallen asleep on the couch just like herself… 

As quiet as possible, she tiptoes over to the hallway but just as she’s about to slide the first foot into her boots, she gets interrupted,

“Where are you going?” 

Zulema stops in her tracks as Macarena’s morning voice reaches her ears. She thought she was being discreet and could sneak out as if she had never been there in the first place but apparently the blonde gets up early… 

“Home,” she answers shortly, “I didn’t mean to pass out on your couch yesterday. Rosa and I were watching this movie and—…” 

Maca takes a moment to just look at her awkward face as a smile spreads across her own. 

“Stay for breakfast,” she insists. Zulema squirms slightly, clearly feeling slightly uneasy, “please.” 

“I don’t think you’ve got anything I would eat voluntarily…” Zulema says and can't help but crack a small smile.

“Didn’t you buy your own food?” There’s not a trace of irony in her gentle voice and Zulema is not only out of excuses, but too grateful to say no, “come on.” Maca tilts her head towards the kitchen as if to urge her to follow as she walks out of the bedroom, dressed in nothing but lingerie and a silky, light blue robe that reveals a little too much. She must admit she might have gawked at the loose fit a tad too intensively as she walked by… 

Once they both find themselves in the kitchen, Maca points with her whole hand towards the seating area,

“You’re not making me food, Rubia.” Zulema states firmly, “ _I’m_ the babysitter, remember?” They both chuckle at that. 

“ _Bueno._ Make yourself at home.” She shrugs and starts pulling out ingredients for her own meal. Zulema throws her a glance as her back is facing her, eyes wandering a south.

Macarena is gorgeous, there is no denying that and Zulema wishes she knew how to approach her properly. She knows that she isn’t going to get very far with her teasing and intimidating ways, but it is all she knows how to do smoothly. She never really got the chance to even interact this way with someone in the blonde’s league. After being stuck in prison for roughly ten years, she barely knew how to behave around normal people and casual situations. 

Maca turns back around and Zulema averts her gaze just in time and offers her a forced smile as their eyes meet. The blonde puts a teapot, two cups and what looks like some kind of sandwich made for royalty atop the table before she takes a seat across from the babysitter. Zulema pours herself a cup and as she takes the first sip, their eyes meet anew,

“Are you not going to eat anything?” Maca asks gently and the other woman shakes her head,

“I’m not hungry…” she mumbles before something else completely suddenly hits her as her gaze wanders around the kitchen, “Have you seen the, uh… box I brought with me yesterday, by the way?” 

“Have I seen the box or what’s _in_ the box?” She cocks a brow. Her humorous attitude tells the brunette she has definitely slept on it, otherwise she would without a doubt have gotten scolded, 

“Rosa told you?” She grins mischievously,

“Well, yes but that’s not how I found out… I thought she had dreamt it,” she chuckles, “then I found the box on the counter and couldn’t help but take a peek inside…” She sighs painfully. Zulema lets out a hearty laugh,

“And? What did you think?” Zulema asks, all excited, “she’s a beauty, _no?”_

“No,” Maca replies flatly, “ _It_ is disgusting.” Moss green eyes meet emerald and suddenly both of them burst into genuine, sheepish laughter. 

“So, where is my little monster?” 

“... In the bathtub.” 

“No seriously.” 

“Seriously.” Maca states without a trace of sarcasm, the box is in the bathtub.” Zulema stares at her, lips parted as if it is the most ridiculous thing she has _ever_ heard. 

“ _The bath—_ ” 

“I don’t want live animals in my kitchen!” She whines aloud, “Let alone a creature like _that!”_

The older woman snorts loudly, amused and honestly not sure what she expected, before she gets out of her chair to go and see for herself. She _has_ to see this with her own eyes.

Just like Maca said, there it is. In the middle of the bathtub her little box sits and next to the sink there is a shovel that clearly doesn’t belong in the bathroom. Maca suddenly shows up in the doorway, leaning against the frame, 

“Don’t tell me—“ Zulema starts pleadingly but Maca cuts her off,

“Of course I used the shovel! Do you think I’d touch that with my bare hands?” She exclaims and the brunette is trying so hard to not laugh or mock her at this point. 

“You poor thing…” Zulema mutters as she grabs the box and lifts it out of the tub. Maca whimpers and stumbles backwards away from the door and gestures for Zulema to stay where she is as she turns back around, “Oh come on, Rubia… She’s in a box! Besides, I can’t recall hearing your reaction yesterday.” 

“I didn’t want to wake you up,” She admits and it makes Zulema’s chest feel a little warm for a moment, “but believe me when I say I had to cover my mouth with _both_ hands.” The brunette chuckles at that. 

“Now, do you want me to dump this one off at home? I need to get some things done before I watch the other little monster anyway…” Zulema chuckles. 

“I would appreciate that..!” Maca admits, still uncomfortable around the carton. The older woman nods before she walks over to the hallway to get dressed. 

* * *

The caravan is quiet, as usual. Everything is the way she left it. Same old. She closes the door behind her, grabs an apple from the tiny kitchen counter and slouches down into the couch. Three missed calls and one new message from Karim. Of course he had been trying to ruin the peace again… 

“What do you want?” She sighs right when he picks up as she calls him back. He wastes no time,

“The target is going to be selling in the Imperial area around the bridge tomorrow evening. I need you to be ready to be there and ready.” 

“You want me to take her out in the middle of the city on top of a public bridge?” Zulema taunts,

“Of course not, _tonta._ ” He mutters, clearly not in the mood for sarcasm, “I’ll hand you more information tomorrow. You better not be busy changing diapers after six o’clock tomorrow.”

 _“Vale._ I’m off from four, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” 

_“Bueno._ I’ll call you back once I know more. Be armed. I might call on you earlier.” He hangs up before she has the chance to respond. Not that she was planning on responding anyway… 

With a heavy sigh, she leans back against the backrest. She isn’t exactly excited to perform an execution tonight, which is odd because back in the days she would have gotten a huge rush of adrenaline out of it, been a little _too_ confident in herself and probably gotten caught, to be realistic. But the possibility never bothered her because doing crimes made her feel invincible. 

Perhaps she will get that feeling back once she gets back to it. Perhaps she has been forced to be a good girl for so long that she has forgotten how good it feels to be bad. She had been without money for so long while in prison, that she forgot what being dirty rich feels like. Or has she just gone soft? Has prison done its thing and taken its toll on her? 

She loads her Walther P22 and tucks it into the waistline of her cargo pants against her lower back. Not even _that_ motion sparks a flare.   
  


* * *

When Zulema gets back to the apartment, Maca has just fed Rosa and is in the bathroom, fixing her hair. Rosa comes waddling out of the living room with something in her hands,

“Zuema!” She beams and runs over to hug her legs. The brunette feels a little awkward and pats the child on her head,

“Hey there, _monstruo_ …” she clears her throat and big eyes suddenly look up at her,

“Look wha I made!” She exclaims and starts unfolding a piece of paper. Zulema kneels down to Rosa’s level which makes her shirt move up her back, revealing something that makes Maca look twice as she comes out of the bathroom. Her blood runs cold as she realizes what it is.

A gun. 

At first she isn’t sure what to do. She feels an urge to call for Rosa and tell the brunette to get the hell out but realizes rather quickly that it’s a pretty bad idea. She has no idea what Zulema is capable of or why she is armed for that matter. Is she planning to hurt them? 

She starts walking backwards into the kitchen while carefully pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket. The brunette never turns around but when the blonde starts dialing the number as she has reached the kitchen, her eyes dart up. When she notices that Maca has left the bathroom, she can suddenly sense how her gun peeks out from where it is supposed to be hidden and she knows the blonde well enough to be able to figure out what she would do if she saw it… 

“ _Policía?”_ Maca half whispers as soon as someone picks up, her hands shaking. She is trying to be as quiet as possible but loud enough to not have to repeat herself. She doesn’t have time for that. Her nerves are so on edge that she doesn’t notice the brunette sneaking up behind her,

“There is a woman in my apartment with a—“ The call is suddenly canceled and an intimidating presence behind her is making the hairs on her neck stand. Zulema had put her thumb between the phone and the blonde’s cheek, pressed the red button and hung up before she could get to the point. 

Maca spins around, terrified as she realizes that Zulema not only knows that she has seen the gun, but was fast enough to figure out exactly what she was thinking and act faster than she could think. She is experienced, no doubt.

“ _Ay, Rubita…”_ She clicks her tongue, “ _‘a woman’?_ Am I no more to you?”

Maca doesn’t answer, just keeps backing away from her without letting her go with her eyes. Zulema reaches behind her back but gets interrupted immediately,

” _Don’t—!”_ The blonde exclaims, reaching an arm out as if to protect herself, “Don’t touch it!”

” _Tranquila,_ I would never hurt you. I’m just gonna show you.” She assures. It takes a few seconds for Maca to convince herself to trust her words, but she does, eventually. She lowers her hand and nods. Zulema pulls it from the hem of her pants without touching the trigger, she holds it out next to herself, just within sight for the blonde to see. 

”Besides, if I wanted to kill you I would have done it already and I wouldn’t have needed a gun.” The brunette chuckles but it doesn’t soothe the blonde the slightest. 

“Why do you have it..? Have you carried it all day?” Maca asks, still rather shaken. 

“I forgot to leave it at home before I got here, I didn’t mean to bring it—“ she lies,

“Why were you carrying it in the first place? Where were you before you got here? Zulema, did you hurt someone..?” The blonde frowns, her features full of concern. Zulema shakes her head,

“No,” she reassures, “I haven’t hurt anyone. It’s for protection.” She explains calmly, “Self defense.” 

Maca can’t help but still be suspicious. How can she not be when she barely knows anything about her at all; her past or her life outside of work. 

“I don’t like it…” she whispers and takes her eyes off the weapon to meet Zulema’s. They’re still filled with fear.

“Okay,” Zulema nods understandingly, “I’ll just put it away, _vale?_ ” She keeps her eyes on the blonde as she carefully puts the gun down on the kitchen counter and carefully slides it over all the way to the wall. 

“I don’t ever want to see that thing in my home again, do you understand?” She says, firmly but quiet. Zulema nods. 

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes sincerely, “After today you never will. I promise.” Maca nods, unable to look at the brunette now when the adrenaline is starting to drop, “I didn’t mean to scare you.” Zulema adds and the younger woman shrugs,

“I just… I feel like I don’t know you…” she mumbles. The brunette frowns. Her chest suddenly feels a little tight and she tries to ignore it but it’s hard, knowing that Macarena is clueless. She _doesn’t_ know her and if she did, they would probably not be standing in her lush apartment face to face right now and she would definitely never let her near Rosa ever again. 

“Well, we’ve only known each other for what? A week?” She shrugs. The corner of the blonde’s mouth twitches,

“I guess you’re right…” she sighs and throws the clock a glance, “I better get going.” 

Maca has a bad gut feeling about this, _again_ (still?). She learns to trust Zulema one second and the next she proves her wrong… There never seems to be a problem with Rosa though and for that she is glad, but knowing she comes with guns and scorpions and who knows what else, bothers her to say the least. 

Zulema offers her a simple nod and Maca starts getting dressed to leave. She grabs her purse and throws her daughter and her babysitter a last glance. The contrast between the two makes her want to let out a painful chuckle. The woman really looks like she could kidnap her child at any given time. Was Rizos right? Is she just waiting for the day it actually happens? Trusting her at this point certainly seems foolish… 

“Okay, _cariño_ , behave now while I’m gone…” she warns as she points at Rosa and just before she closes the door her eyes meet Zulema’s, “you too.” She adds and the older woman grins before the door cuts their eye contact. She then turns to the little girl next to her,

“So what do you say,” she cocks a brow, “shall we behave?” 

Rosa shakes her head, her little body bubbling with mischief. 

“Thought so.” She grins before taking her to the kitchen as fast as her mother is out of sight. She opens one of the cabinets where she hid her groceries the other day and digs out a chocolate bar, cracks a piece and tosses it to Rosa. She honestly doesn’t know what she expected when she threw it without a heads up but to her surprise, Rosa actually catches it mid air. While the child is inspecting the unfamiliar piece of food, Zulema puts one in her own mouth,

“Try it,” She urges and the child’s eyes dart up in confusion, “take a bite.” She carefully puts it in her little mouth, between her few tiny teeth and struggles a bit to bite it off. Zulema watches her thought process with a smile on her face as the little eyes suddenly grow big with delight. 

“Good, huh?” 

Rosa nods eagerly and eats the rest of the piece she was given while Zulema takes the other bag out as well and rips it open. Since she is off this evening, the sleeping part is not going to be her problem anyway... 

When she turns back around, the child is jumping in front of the counter, trying to grab something she cannot reach. It suddenly hits Zulema what has caught her eye,

“ _Nonono_ ,” she takes a step towards her and Rosa stops immediately, “that’s no toy, _vale?”_ Luckily, Rosa is too short to reach all the way up on the counter. She’s not even close, “here, have these instead.”

The toddler is suddenly given a handful of gummies but they’re too many for her little hands to grasp so Zulema eats a couple before Rosa gets to try again. Happy, and with hands full of candy, she strolls over to the kitchen table and puts them down to take a closer look at them. They come in different shapes and colors, and she is mesmerized by it to say the least. 

“Look, _tía!”_ She exclaims and holds one of the candies out for the older woman to see. It’s shaped like a little dinosaur. Zulema barely has the time to fake an impressed expression before her phone goes off. The thought of it being Karim ruins her mood in an instant but once she has tugged the phone out of her pocket, she reads a different name on the screen. It’s Macarena.   
  


“ _Rubia,”_ She answers, “ _Qué pasa?”_

“Hi…” she mumbles, almost regretfully, “I left in such a rush, I forgot to take the trash out, check what groceries I need to buy after work _and_ make Rosa’s bed… so can I ask you for a favor? Or three..?” 

Zulema chuckles,

“Am I your housewife now too?”

“Of course not… You don’t have to—“

“I’m kidding, _guapa._ ” She smiles into the phone. Maca sighs, “I’m in the kitchen right now, what do you need?”

“Rice should be on the top shelf in the cabinet above the microwave,” she explains, “If the glass jar is more than half full, I don't need to buy any.”

“Glass jar?” Zulema frowns and opens up the little storage space. Her eyes widen at the sight. Every little thing is tidily organized. Rice, pasta, quinoa, müsli and seeds have been poured into clear glass containers and little stickers describing the content decorate all of them, “why would you need to buy anything, you’ve got the whole store in here…” 

“Can you just check if we have any?” Maca groans,

“If _we_ have any?” Zulema taunts. The blonde sighs,

“Rosa lives with me, _no?”_ She reminds her without a sign of amusement. The brunette just chuckles. 

“Give me a minute,” She puts the phone down on the counter, grabs a stool and climbs it to take a look on the top shelf, “ _sí, we’ve_ got rice. Enough for all of us. The whole family.” 

Maca is so done with her by now, she decides not to respond to her witty comments,

“I put the trash right by the door, I meant to take it with me on the way out but I totally forgot…” she shakes her head, a move Zulema clearly cannot see, “the chute is right outside the door to the left. That should be all you need to know... See you at six.”

“Hey, hey now, Rubia,” the older woman suddenly hurries and succeeds to catch her attention before she has hung up, “why such a rush?” 

“I’m working, Zulema.” She states firmly.

“Right,” she muses, “but you’re alone right now, _no?”_ The blonde doesn’t reply. Zulema walks over to the hallway to grab the bag of waste before she continues, “so… what are you wearing?”

“ _Zulema—!”_

“ _I’m kidding_ , relax!” She laughs heartily, “I’m just trying to make you blush. Rosy cheeks looks lovely on you.” She purrs as she exits the apartment to throw the trash down the chute.

“Well, I don’t have time for this,” Maca sighs frustratedly, “and you need both hands to make Rosa’s bed.” 

“... Besides,” the brunette’s husky voice drops low, “I already know what you're wearing, all the way down to your lacy, purple lingerie…” she singsongs. Now _that_ makes Macarena’s cheeks burn, vividly.   
  


“I gotta go…” she mumbles and is just about to cut the call, when their conversation gets violently disrupted by an earsplitting bang that suddenly echoes through the apartment and it is so loud it makes Zulema gasp in surprise. Her mouth stays open after that and the sound of the brunette’s reaction followed by deafening silence in the phone sends a chill up Macarena’s spine,

“What was that,” she asks, her voice noticeably shaky, “... Zulema?”

Zulema doesn’t reply. She can’t even hear her anymore. She throws the kitchen counter a glance while the blonde keeps begging her to say something. The gun is gone. The stool is why.

_“Zulema?!”_

She hangs up. Maca disappears with a beep.

“... _Rosa?”_ The brunette calls out but the only response she gets is deafening silence. 


	8. Distraction

She must have climbed up and taken it while Zulema went to throw out the trash. With the stool in front of the counter, she could easily reach it. She should have thought about that. She should have thought twice, hell, _once_ at least.

The apartment is chillingly quiet. Zulema is rarely worried, but right now she is worried _sick_. Terrified, even.

 _“Rosa?!”_ She shouts, louder this time but still no reply. She drops the phone onto the table and it clatters onto the surface. The way to Rosa’s room from the kitchen feels a thousand times longer than usual. Every second without any kind of response is suffocating her at this point. What if she is seriously hurt? _What if—_

She finally reaches the door and bashes it wide open. She finds Rosa, _alive_ , sitting against the wall. She’s sobbing. The gun is lying on the floor pretty far away from her, as if it has been thrown or she has been running from it. Zulema’s eyes fall closed as relief washes over her like a tidal wave. _Thank God._ She walks over, kneels down and roughly pulls the child into her embrace. She is normally not the hug kind of person but she just cannot help it. Rosa doesn’t protest. 

“Are you hurt??” She asks and starts looking for blood, a wound, anything that could indicate damage on the child before she has the chance to answer. 

”Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” She snaps, clearly upset and the words come out harsher than intended, ”If you _ever_ touch that again, I’ll kill you myself, do you hear me?” Rosa sobs louder and Zulema hugs her tighter. This could have gone really bad. It is pure luck that it didn’t. 

The brunette releases the child and gets up on her feet before offering her a hand to hold. Rosa gently grabs a hold of three of her fingers, using her tiny hand’s full capacity, before Zulema picks the gun off the floor and crouches down again,

“Do you know what this is?” Zulema asks, not expecting her to know, just wanting to explain. As predicted, Rosa shakes her head, “It’s a weapon. Something that you use to hurt people with.” 

The little girl looks at the object in her hand, then back up at her babysitter. 

“Do you hurt people?” She asks innocently and the brunette gets a little taken aback for a second. 

“No! Well—…” her eyes wander awkwardly around the room before they come back to look at the child, “only the bad guys.” She says, but realizes immediately that it’s a lie. The woman she had agreed to get rid of wasn’t necessarily bad. She was bad for the business but was she a bad person? Zulema had accepted the job without any knowledge of that so it would be a lie to say that ‘bad’ is on her list of criteria. 

“Bad?” She asks, just like any child who cannot stop asking questions once they’ve started. Zulema sighs, takes a moment to shift on her feet and gives Rosa a serious look,

“If someone hurts you, they are bad.” She says, “if someone ever hurt you, I would hurt them.” Rosa doesn’t respond but she seems to have processed the information. 

Zulema suddenly realizes that her phone has been buzzing since she hung up on the blonde and she should probably get back to her to let her know that everything is alright before— 

The door to the apartment suddenly bursts open and Zulema doesn’t have time to do more than spin around before she’s met by an extremely shaken blonde in the doorway. 

_“Rosa!!”_ Maca exclaims before she drops to her knees and mindlessly steals her attention away from Zulema, _“Oh thank god..!_ Are you okay?” Her daughter nods and cuddles up in her mother’s embrace. 

The brunette awkwardly watches the interaction while still crouched next to them until Macarena throws her a dark glare. 

“Are you out of your mind?!” She growls, “ _why did you hang up on me?!_ Rosa could be dead for all I know and you just—“

“But she isn’t, is she?” Zulema counters calmly but it makes the blonde see red and get up on her feet. Zulema follows,

“How was I supposed to know, _Zulema?!_ I heard a _gunshot_ and then it all went quiet!”

”Maca, you’re overreacting,” Zulema tries and takes a step closer in an attempt to calm her down, “nothing happened!” 

“You have _no_ right to tell me I’m overreacting! You have no fucking _idea_ how I am feeling!” Maca yells, “if you had a child, maybe you would know!” 

Something flashes through the brunette’s eyes at that and Maca notices but is too upset to really care. Zulema suddenly straightens her back and looks at her with a gaze that is new to the blonde. A broken kind of glare. She lightly sucks her teeth and nods, emerald leaving moss eyes,

” _Bueno.”_ She mumbles and doesn’t seem to have much else to say. 

Maca is so consumed by her emotions that every word leaving her mouth comes out like a bark. 

“Get out,” she demands, “I can’t even look at you right now.” 

Zulema isn’t a very emotional person in general. It takes a whole lot to hurt her feelings, especially with simple words, but the words that just left Macarena’s mouth stabs her right in the chest. 

She turns around and walks towards the hallway, hands curled into fists. Rage is rushing through her veins and bad, old habits tell her to turn around and shoot her between the eyes, something she would have done without a second thought if it would have been anyone but Macarena. 

This is the first time she feels a need to calm down instead of acting on impulse. Usually, when someone made her upset, she was determined to make sure they would regret it or paid for it dearly. But not this time. This time she was about to, for the first time in her life, take it and leave. 

She was about to let someone else win an argument… who has she become? Did prison do this to her? Or are these people slowly making her go soft? 

She steps into her boots and cracks the door open. She pauses before stepping outside. She can feel Maca’s green eyes burn holes in her back,

“Am I fired?” She asks over her shoulder, without looking at the blonde.

“Honestly,” Maca starts, and it pains the brunette already, “I don’t know. I just—.” 

Zulema simply nods and exits the apartment, leaving before the sentence is finished. Once the door is shut, she pulls the gun back out to load it and just when she’s about to hide it in her clothes again, it hits her… 

She is the bad person she told Rosa about.   
  


* * *

Once Zulema has reached the street outside, she takes a look around. Getting off your shift early is a positive thing, no? Now she just needs to find something that could take her mind off this whole situation and entertain her until Karim decides to call... 

There’s just one little problem. Usually she would do something drastic to get rid of this feeling but something makes her not want to. She somehow feels like… she deserves it? Being illegal and mischievous doesn’t tempt her right now and anything else just seems awfully boring. Perhaps a drink would do the trick? Perhaps even get completely wasted and forget about Macarena and her offspring, and not give a fuck about Karim and his desperate attempts to make her his little companion again… 

On foot, she finds her way back to the bar that she had been too those days ago when she first bumped into Macarena’s best friend. She was most likely not very appreciated by either staff or guards around the place at this point, but that’s part of the fun, after all.

“Hey,” the guard shouts as she approaches the entrance, “You’re not welcome here.” 

Zulema turns to look at him for a moment before she lets out an amused scoff,

“Am I that etched into your memory?” She smiles and the smug look on her face clearly annoys him, “I’m flattered.”

“You’re rather easy to recognize.” He states simply.

“Or is it because I offered you a kiss?” She continues, “... you missed out, by the way, when you turned me down.” she clicks her tongue. The man in the doorway doesn’t reply. He doesn’t move a single feature. Zulema’s eyes narrow before she walks up to him,

“I’m just here for a drink,” she sighs, “what do you want?” 

“You think you can bribe me into letting you in?” He scoffs and oh how she loves when they react. 

“Yes,” She answers honestly and her gaze falls to the little name tag on his chest, “...Hanbal. I’m Zulema.” 

“I don’t care.” He states firmly.

This is already starting to get entertaining enough for her to forget about earlier. 

“How polite…” She mumbles, “why don’t you join me? We can have a drink… chat a little...” She smirks and moves a little closer. Hanbal corrects his posture,

“Are you stupid?” He snaps, “I’m working, _and_ you’re probably the last person I would have a drink with.” 

“Hm, liar…” she hums and lets a finger run along the belt on his uniform. He squirms slightly before grabbing her wrist,

“Get lost, _snake.”_

“Or what? You’ll have to _arrest_ me?” Her eyes grow with mock excitement and the guard rolls his eyes. To his surprise, the brunette suddenly pushes him, “stop playing hard to get, I don’t have all day. _You want me,_ just admit it.” 

He steps up to her, making sure she can feel his breath on her face as his words turn arabic,

“Get your cute drink elsewhere, _alhabiba.”_

Zulema doesn’t move an inch and just when he’s about to retire, she pulls the gun from her waistline and presses the muzzle against his neck. 

“I’d love to hear you say that again.” She breathes and as expected, he shuts up, “Now let me in, or we will have to solve this my way. As I said, _I don’t have all day._ ” 

Brown eyes switch between green for a moment. 

“My shift ends in ten minutes,” he half-whispers, “then you’ll get that drink, but only if you let it be on me.” He smirks. Zulema frowns in confusion. 

“Why the sudden change of mind?” She asks, clearly suspicious. He shrugs.

“Well, what can I say… Dangerous women excite me.” He winks and wets his lips with sudden anticipation.

“Are you kidding me,” she sighs and lowers the weapon, “I had to pull the _gun_ on you to make you think that I am?” she blows a raspberry, “ _hombre,_ I’m disappointed.” 

“Could’ve taken you for a hot, bratty alcoholic to be honest…” 

Zulema throws him a glare before she starts walking back towards the entrance, but gets pulled back just as fast, 

“Hey, I never said you were allowed to go inside without me.” He teases and the older woman sighs dramatically, 

“ _Oye, tío_ , listen…” she husks, “I don’t want you. I want a drink, if you didn’t get the hint before.” 

“Didn’t sound like that a minute ago.” 

“Please, don’t let my fake bribe-flirting get to your head...” she shakes her head, pity written across her features. 

“So tell me, what is it that you’re trying to drown?” He asks. Of course he knows. He’s seen too many of these kinds of customers. 

“It’s not your business.” She mumbles. 

“Do you want that drink or not?” 

She throws him another glare. _Whatever…_ “I got fired. I guess.” She mutters.

“Oof…” he huffs, “ _that_ bad, huh?” 

“Nah, the job didn’t suit me anyway...”

“I meant _you_ , _chica mala.”_ He sing-songs and she can’t help but laugh at that. 

“You’re really into this bad girl fantasy, _no?”_ She cocks a brow. Little does he know that she is too, just the other way around. The only kind of person she would ever consider getting it together with is the one that looks at her with fear yet can’t keep his hands off her. Someone who admires her mortal skills and will makes sure to let her know.

Nothing gets her off quite like flattering, admiration and affirmation.

“I’d let you shoot me anytime.” He says, without a trace of irony. 

_Fuck_. 

Zulema snorts, but can’t seem to take her eyes off him. Not necessarily because she’s attracted to him, but because she realizes that he could be a better distraction than that drink right now… 

“When did you say your shift ends..?” She asks. He straightens his back proudly,

“In three now.” He says after checking his watch. The brunette nods. 

“Well,” she sighs, “I guess I’ve got no other plans...” 

“So, it’s a date then?” He grins.

“Pft.”

* * *

Moments later they find themselves seated at the bar, whiskey in hand, ice in hers but not in his. 

“So what did you do?” He asks, “Your job, I mean.” Zulema chuckles,

“I’m not gonna tell you…” she shakes her head, trying to hide the fact that she’s rather embarrassed. 

“Oh come on!” He urges, “you’re fired anyway.” 

“I’m not telling you.” She says and her tone tells him she really means it. She’s not going to tell him. 

“Illegal business? Classified information? Is that why you can’t tell me?” He asks, his smug smile never leaving his face, Zulema chuckles again, 

“No…” she admits, “It’s probably the most legal, normal job I’ve ever had.” 

Hanbal brows shoot up as he nods, still curious but clearly impressed. “So what are you gonna do now?”

“Perform an execution and get rich.” She answers bluntly and puts a cigarette between her lips. He laughs at her statement and just as she pulls a lighter out of her pocket, he snatches the tobacco out of her mouth. She doesn’t even have the chance to complain before he gives her a disapproving glare. You’re not allowed to smoke in here and he obviously both knows and has to follow all the rules. 

“Sounds exciting.” He chuckles sarcastically but the brunette shakes her head, 

Not really...” she drawls before taking a gulp of her whiskey. A brief grimace crosses her face from the burning sensation in her throat before she continues, “I’m really not in the mood to kill today…” she sighs and it’s obvious that it actually bothers her.

“Wait—“ he pauses, “are you serious?” 

Zulema looks up from her glass with big innocent eyes. She didn’t think he thought she was joking. She nods.

Three minutes later she is lifted off the tile floor in one of the bathroom stalls and slammed against the wall. The thud makes her gasp and it makes Hanbal feral. He covers her neck in desperate kisses, bites down below her jawline and continues down towards her collarbone. She manages to swiftly get rid of her hoodie, revealing the sheer mesh top underneath and he starts placing kisses on top of it, knowing she can feel it against her skin through the thin fabric. She wonders if this would make Macarena jealous if she ever found out… before she kicks herself for letting her mind go there. She has just pulled the T-shirt over and off his head when something interrupts them. The vibrating sound of a phone, to be exact.

“ _Joder..!”_ Zulema curses and tilts her head back, making it hit the wall before she shuts her eyes closed with frustration. She doesn’t even have to look. She knows that it’s Karim. 

“Ignore it…” the man between her thighs breathes and is just about to continue where he left off when she pushes him off of her,

“No, I gotta take this…” she mumbles regretfully. He lets her down and throws his hands in the air as she turns her back on him to answer the phone, that’s clearly more important than him right now. 

“Is it urgent?” She asks before Karim says anything. 

“Yes, we need you at the bridge, _ahora_.” He states. The brunette groans, “busy?” 

“ _No…_ No, of course not.” The brunette lies. 

“Are you alone?” 

She throws Hanbal a glance over her shoulder,

“ _Sí_.” 

“Okay, listen carefully because I’m not going to repeat this,” he warns, “She wears a green camo hoodie, black pants and white shoes. Impossible to miss. The exchange happens in a more closed off area, the bridge is just a meeting point. Follow her when she’s approached by a customer and strike right after the deal has been made and the customer is out of sight. Got it?” 

“Got it.” She nods. 

“You’ve got an hour,” he says, “don’t fuck this up.” 

Luckily, she’s just a few blocks from where she is needed. She will be there in five minutes if she gets going right away. She hangs up, puts the phone back into her pocket and turns to the man behind her. 

“Give me your phone.” It’s a demand rather than a question. He frowns, but hands it to her anyway. She starts typing away,

“What’s this?” He asks as she hands it back. She has created a new contact with the first letter of her name together with her number.

“Rain check.” She says as she hurries to get her clothes back on. He huffs disappointedly before he’s met by a hard peck on the mouth and is forced to watch her leave. She doesn’t even look back.   
  


* * *

Zulema, on the other hand, has already forgotten about the guy as soon as she has exited the club. She isn’t going to dwell on some mediocre one night stand and she _better_ start focusing on what’s next, because she cannot afford any mistakes as an assassin. 

Is that what she is now? 

Is that what is gonna become of her after all? A whole month of trying to get back into society and do good and it was all in vain? Karim was right.

She can’t stand all the boring, normal things. She isn’t content being a babysitter earning minimum wage, stuck in a caravan without anything and anyone. Not that she craves the presence of another person, she never has, but the silence and restlessness is driving her crazy. It reminds her of being locked into one of the isolation cells back in prison. Nothing to do and no one to even pick a fight with. She never thought freedom would feel the same. 

She pulls the hood over her head as she heads down the busy street towards the water. Hands buried in her pockets while trying to find anything that resembles a bridge. 

But she's good at this, isn’t she? Why is she trying so hard to be someone she is not? She had to lie to Rosa. She’s keeping everything that she is from Macarena. If she barely wants her around _now_ then what will happen when she finds out the truth? She will abandon her, just like everyone else always does. 

There it is. The Segovia bridge. 

She looks around. There aren’t a lot of people out today. Perhaps it’s the hour. After all, at seven, most mundane humans are inside having dinner with their families… Something Zulema will never have nor understand. She continues her stroll onto the cement crossing the water, inspecting every person on the way. She doesn’t have to search for long before she spots the back of her target. That same moment, the woman is approached by a guy across the street. 

Perfect timing. 

She picks up the pace, follows the two of them into an alley and watches them round the corner of the building. She stops just around said corner to be able to peek and eventually get a clean aim once the time is right. She silently pulls the gun from her waistline and from nowhere, she’s hit with a rush of adrenaline and an incredible boost of confidence. 

_This_ is the feeling she was missing. This is the feeling of true freedom. The risk taking and the excitement that comes with it, the danger and the uncertainty of what’s next. She missed these games, where she had a lead and advantage of the situation. It makes her feel alive. Karim may have won, but perhaps it wasn’t as bad as she originally thought. Perhaps Macarena and Rosa have been nothing but a distraction this whole time. Perhaps everything she felt for them was just something the psychiatrists in prison had put in her head. Perhaps she had been manipulated to actually care about other people than herself for once… 

The guy leaves, pleased with the deal and the woman stays to count the cash. That’s when Zulema raises the gun, closes one eye and aims. The memory of Rosa asking her if she hurts people flashes through her head in that moment, but she shakes it off and takes a deep breath. She presses her finger hard against the trigger. Here goes nothing… 

Just as she’s about to pull the trigger, the woman turns around. The eye she had just closed snaps back open and her mind suddenly goes blank. She literally can’t believe her eyes,

The woman, her target, is Estefanía Kabila. 

_Rizos_. 

  
  
  
  



	9. Dialogues

She lowers the gun and sighs frustratedly. _Great_. Fucking marvelous. Macarena’s best friend… 

What are the odds? Obviously, she cannot kill her. That would not solve her problems, only get her into more trouble and that’s the last thing she needs right now. 

Rizos starts walking towards her, making her way back out of the alley so Zulema has to quickly get out of there and make sure she does it unnoticed. She manages to slip around the last corner right on time and stop on the street outside to lean against the brick wall as if she’s been there all day. When the other brunette is back in sight she’s still counting the money on hand and doesn’t notice the other woman’s presence, so she takes her sweet time digging her pack of cigarettes out of her jacket and out of nowhere it hits her, that she could actually use this situation to her advantage… 

“What sells more nowadays? _Heroína? Cocaína?”_ Zulema suddenly drawls to get the younger woman’s attention. Rizos spins around as the sound of the uncomfortably familiar voice reaches her ears. As soon as realization hits her, she throws her a glare. One that the older woman doesn’t see since she is busy lighting a cigarette. 

“Oh take a hike, thief,” she hisses, “this is none of your business.” 

Zulema chuckles lowly,

“ _Thief_ …” she repeats, clearly amused and blows a big cloud of smoke into the humid air around them, “What do you think Macarena is gonna say about this?” Their eyes meet. Rizos stays quiet, “What would little Rosa think..?” She pouts tauntingly.

“What do you want?” Rizos growls. She knows that she has lost, “I’ve got no wallet on me.”

“You’re _funny_ ,” Zulema grins in mock surprise before pointing with her cigarette butt towards the miserable amount of cash in her hand, “I don’t want your wallet. You clearly need it more than I do.” 

Rizos shifts on her feet and crosses her arms over her chest, clearly annoyed about being so savagely defeated. Zulema takes a deep breath,

“You stop trying to get me fired, speak a good word for me and I will not have seen any of this, _vale?_ ” Her brows shoot up, expecting a sign of agreement. 

“What do you want from her?” Rizos asks, changing the subject kind of drastically, “you’re not the babysitter kinda type. You’ve got something up your sleeve and I don’t like it.” She mutters. Zulema eyes her for a moment. 

“ _Nada_ ,” she replies simply, “I need a job.” Rizos purses her lips, her eyes narrow. She doesn’t buy it, “You do too, by the way.” she adds, never tired of taunting her. 

“If you hurt them,” the younger woman takes a bold step closer, “I swear I will kill you.”

Zulema’s eyes that are locked with Rizos’ narrow. The gunmetal suddenly feels uncomfortable against her lower back. 

_If she only knew._

“Whatever,” she drops the cigarette butt to the ground, “she kicked me out today so, for both of our sake, I hope you’re a good liar.” She winks, clicks her tongue and puts the glow out with her boot before she leaves to head back home. 

She drops down on the bed once she’s gotten her shoes off in the doorway to the caravan. It’s silent. Again. Always that nerve racking silence. She doesn’t know what she would have done without her job; without having somewhere to go and someone to talk to. It would have no doubt driven her mad by now and it is strange, because she has always been a lone wolf. She usually prefers personal space over any kind of company. Her own company had always been more than enough. 

She glances over to the kitchen counter and the box next to the sink before she reaches over and pulls it down into the bed with her. The scorpion has been in there since she went home and left it earlier but it’s not like it’s bothered. Whether it was in a tiny shoebox or bigger terrarium, it never moved much anyway. She picks it up by the tail, pulls her own shirt up and places it atop her bare stomach where it starts lazily crawling. She liked the feeling of all the little legs slightly tickling her. It was soothing, in a way. 

“You and I, huh?” Zulema drawls, watching the black creature make its way across her skin. Suddenly the entire bed starts buzzing when the phone, that she’s apparently laying on top of, goes off and the animal gets just as startled as her. The brunette jumps and her pet defends itself out of fear and leaves a painful sting right above her belly button. 

“ _Joder!!_ ” She moans and slaps the scorpion off of herself. It lands in the sheets with its little pitchers and tail held high. 

She sits up properly and takes a better look at the sore mark on her stomach. It looks and feels like a bee sting, nothing dangerous, but it hurts like hell. She is going to have to put something on that later... Fed up with the whole situation, she tries to soothe the reddened area with the cold of her hand as she picks the phone up and answers the call, 

“ _Yes?_ ” She sounds unnecessarily frustrated.

“So what happened?” It’s Karim. Of course she has had eyes on her the entire time.

“Well,” Zulema starts, trying to quickly think of an excuse, “it didn’t really work out quite as planned.” 

“Clearly…” he grumbles, “care to explain?” 

“Too many people around. They would have caught me.” She lies, mentally kicking herself for not being able to come up with anything smarter.

“Hm,” he huffs, clearly not amused, “Hakim saw you having a calm conversation with the target. Do you two have a past? Do you know each other?”

“No,” she lies again, “I pretended to be interested in the shit she sold to get rid of any suspicions and asked her if we could meet up later this week. _I got this_ , don’t worry.” 

“I really hope you do,” Karim states, “You have a week. No more. I want her _gone_ , is that clear?” 

“Crystal.” 

* * *

It takes way longer than usual to get Rosa to fall asleep tonight and Maca would think it is because of the gun incident; that her daughter must be shaken, but she doesn’t seem very scarred. She isn’t in a bad mood or in need of any more affection than usual, she just has a ton of energy and Maca cannot for the life of her figure out why. 

Just as she has lifted her daughter off of the backrest of their couch, she’s climbing a chair in the kitchen and when she has told her to get down, she’s already in the bathroom struggling to get atop of the toilet. Maca sighs. There’s no use. She picks up her phone to distract herself from her motherly instincts, when she notices a new text message from Rizos,

**R: We need to talk.**

  
They do, indeed. She calls her up.

“Thank god you texted..!” Maca exclaims into the phone. 

“Has something happened?” The brunette asks,

“Oh _if_ it has,” Maca sighs, “I caught Zulema carrying a gun this morning…” 

Rizos frowns. This was information Zulema had left out when they met. 

“A _gun?_ Why?” 

“I don’t know..!” She whines, “I asked her and she said she kept it for protection and self defense— _Rosa, stop doing that!”_

“Well… perhaps it is?” 

“What?” 

“For protection.” Rizos clarifies, but it does make her concerned to know that the brunette walks around armed. She wonders if she was when she met her earlier today as well…

“From what?” Maca worries, “she wouldn’t wear a gun like _that_ if it was just for casual safety. It’s… one of those you see on TV.”

Rizos runs a hand through her curls. Shit. She’s right, but she can’t let her know that. She needs to convince her otherwise even though it’s the last thing she wants to do right now. Perhaps if she convinces Macarena so that Zulema can keep her job and her mouth shut, she can keep an eye on her in the meantime. Nothing bad should be able to happen… right? 

“Have you seen the clubs at night, _tía_..?” Rizos clicks her tongue, “the men start acting like animals after midnight. If you go alone, you _should_ be armed.” 

“The club? The one you go to all the time?” Maca asks worriedly.

“Yes, _pero_ … I always go with my friends. I wouldn’t even think of going there on my own,” she says, exaggerating as much as she can, “women are drugged and pulled out into strangers’ cars in the driveway and shit… pft, it’s a shitshow!” 

“Oh, I—“ Maca swallows, “I had no idea it was that bad…” 

“Oh _it is_ , and from what I’ve understood, Zulema always goes alone. She has good reason to carry a weapon.” Rizos hates playing with her friend’s safety, but if she wants to stay in Maca’s life and be able to keep an eye out for her, the blonde better not find out what she’s been doing for the past year… “Perhaps she just didn’t tell you because she didn’t want to freak you out.” 

“That makes sense…” Maca mumbles, “Well, if it hadn’t been for that Rosa got a hold of it and accidentally—“ 

_“What?!”_

_“She’s fine_ , she’s fine! Thank god…” she quickly reassures, “she managed to fire at the door, but it was a huge scare and I completely lost it.”

“How did she get a hold of it in the first place?!” pinching the bridge of her nose, she kicks herself for knowing she is about to defend Zulema once again, for something she’d rather kick her ass for.

“I don’t know. I asked Zulema to leave the first thing I did once I got there so I never had the chance to ask her, but she put it away on the kitchen counter before I left so I would assume Rosa climbed, the way she climbs everything in this apartment…” she mutters, while watching Rosa climb yet another piece of furniture before her eyes. 

“So she left Rosa unsupervised?” 

“Well, to be fair, that’s on me…” Maca admits, “I asked her to take out the trash while we were on the phone and she must have taken it in the meantime.” 

“ _Vale_ …” Rizos sighs, “perhaps you should have a serious talk with her. Set some boundaries, get to know her and her ways better, you know?” She suggests. 

“I don’t know… she seemed rather upset when I lashed out at her. Hurt, even?” Maca frowns, “I’m not sure she wants to hear from me.” 

“ _Of course_ she was upset. She is head over heels for you,” Rizos snorts, “I bet my ass she is checking her phone every other minute—.” Maca feels how her cheeks suddenly heat up,

“Pft… _Cállate, Rizos_.” 

_“It’s true!”_

“She flirts with me because she knows it gets on my nerves,” Maca shakes her head but a smile, invisible to the brunette, creeps up on her face nonetheless, “she just enjoys being a pain in the ass.” 

“If you say so…” Rizos drawls, clearly convinced that Maca is in deep denial. 

“Besides,” Maca continues, seemingly not done with the subject, “we’re so... different.” 

“Opposites attract, no?” 

The blonde snorts. 

“Hm,” She huffs, “whatever, I’m not into her, or women for that matter. You don’t have to worry.” 

“Don’t lie, you’re totally into me!” 

“Always into you.” Maca smiles and Rizos laughs before the conversation comes to an end, 

“ _Vale_ , I’m gonna let you go now, it’s getting late.” She yawns, “Think about what I said. Ask her out or something. I bet she’d like that.” She teases and Maca just shakes her head. 

“We’ll see. I’ll let you know.” She murmurs, “Night..!” 

“Nighty.” 

She puts the phone down on the coffee table and throws Rosa an eye. She’s sitting next to her on the couch now, fiddling with Maca’s lip gloss that she must have dug out of her purse. 

“Hey,” she tries, to get the child’s attention, “should we try to get some sleep?” 

Rosa shakes her head. Her mother sighs. She isn’t even a little tired. 

“... _Cariño_ ,” it’s the beginning of a question and Rosa looks up at her curiously, “do you like Zulema?” 

Rosa nods eagerly. 

”Why?” 

The little girl thinks for a minute, then she shrugs. She’s too young to understand why. She just does. 

“Do you want her to come with us to the park tomorrow?”

“... Yes!” She exclaims and gets up on her feet, “yes, _yes_ , _please_ _mama!”_

* * *

This is a mess and she has no idea how to get out of it. One week is not enough. One week to come up with some kind of plan because she can’t kill Maca’s street rat for a friend even if she would want to. Karim has eyes everywhere and she is in too deep to stop now. 

What if she _did_ kill her? What would happen? She would lose Macarena and Rosa, no doubt, and she would obviously go back to being unemployed, lonely and bored… But she would have a whole lot of money. Money that would solve most of her problems and enable her to start over somewhere else. In a real apartment, maybe even a house, and eat Chinese food three times a day if that would be what she wants. But would that make her happy? Perhaps happiness is overrated anyway… 

Her phone interrupts her daydreaming when she suddenly receives a text message,

**R: What does a babysitter need a gun for?**

Zulema snorts in amusement as she reads the new message on the screen. Rizos. 

**Z: “None of your business”, tía.**

She taunts, using the same line the brunette had used on her earlier the same evening. It doesn’t really bother her that she’s suspicious because she will be no matter what she says. She will not suspect that it’s actually her that she is after anyway. Or well, should be after. 

**R: Who carries a gun around a child? What kinda person are you??**

Her eyes roll. She already had this conversation with Macarena… She considers whether she should reply or not but decides it’s probably best to do so if she wants her job back,

**Z: Tranquila, Kabila,** She wittily rhymes,

**I didn’t mean to bring it.**

It takes a minute before she receives a reply.

**R: What do you need that typa gun for anyway?  
**

**Z: So many questions… It’s almost like you don’t trust me.**

**R: Give me one reason to trust your shady ass…**

**Z: Yet you’re so desperately trying to get me back into your best friend’s life. Why?**

**R: We have a deal.**

**Z: And why do we have a deal?**

Minutes pass without another word from the younger woman. She isn’t going to reply because she knows that Zulema wants her to say it. 

**Z: You’re not much better than me, Estefaníta.**

Just as she’s about to drop the phone to the little table in the caravan, it starts buzzing. Who would call her at this time in the evening? 

Macarena. It’s Macarena. 

“Maca?” She answers, voice tinted with confusion. 

“Hi,” the blonde on the other end sighs shyly. Zulema smiles into the phone, “sorry, did I wake you up?” 

“Hey… Oh— No, not at all. I was texting a friend.” 

It’s strange, but the deep, familiar voice on the other end makes Maca feel a sense of calm when it should probably do the opposite.

“Oh, okay… good,” she nods and then there’s a pause. Zulema can hear Rosa making a mess in the background, “How did you get Rosa to fall asleep on the couch that one time..?” She suddenly asks. The older woman is still smiling. 

“You know,” she starts, “Rosa may be a piece of work… But I’m _way_ worse.” They both chuckle at that, Macarena half bitterly, 

“Tell me about it…” Maca drawls but can’t help but crack a small smile. 

“Sing her a lullaby or do some other cute shit that you’re most likely good at,” the brunette shrugs, “I wouldn’t recommend my tactics.” They chuckle before Macarena sighs. Zulema goes silent.

“I’m actually calling to apologize.” She admits after that. It’s quiet for a moment, “... and to tell you that you’re still welcome here. You’re not fired.” She clarifies. Zulema bites her lip. She isn’t sure whether this is Rizos doing or if she’s genuinely feeling bad for lashing out at her, but her warm words are genuine for sure.

“... _Gracias_.” 

“I need to talk to you though,” she says, “I’m taking Rosa to the park tomorrow, it’s my day off… Do you want to come?” 

Zulema’s eyes widen slightly. She is a little taken aback by the unexpected invitation, though her first impulse is to accept it. 

“I, uh— sure.” She manages to say. Not exactly as cheerfully as she planned but it will do… 

“ _Bueno,”_ Maca smiles, “come by at noon. We’ll have dinner right after.” 

“Okay...” Zulema mumbles. She just got invited for dinner as well, “Okay, I’ll be there.” 

“Great..!” 

“So… Goodnight?” 

“Goodnight. See you tomorrow.” 

“ _Oye_ Maca—“ the brunette suddenly interrupts right before Maca has the chance to hang up. 

“... What?” 

“Speaking of Rosa’s excessive energy,” Maca knows that this is Zulema's fault before she has revealed it, “I _might_ have let Rosa try some candy earlier today…” she admits not so regretfully. 

“ _Zulema?! Are you kidding me?_ You’re _asking_ to get fired at this point!” Maca exclaims when she realizes tonight is definitely a lost cause… Zulema laughs,

“Good luck and sweet dreams, _guapa_.” 

“Watch your mouth.” Maca bites back and the brunette’s brows shoot up at the sassy warning. She just knows Maca wearing a smug smile on the other end. 

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what this _mouth_ is capable of…” Zulema counters and the blonde isn’t prepared for that kind of comeback. She blushes, 

“ _Enough,_ ” she chuckles, “that doesn’t work on me.”

“Oh, doesn’t it now?” She muses seductively. The younger woman snorts,

“Goodnight.” 

Maca hangs up before she has the chance to reply and it amuses her, because she knows that the blonde finds her intriguing and doesn’t really know how to handle it. Zulema knows what she is doing and she knows what it does to her, even though the younger woman refuses to admit it. 

She leans back on her pillow and sighs blissfully, despite the burning ache on her belly and the scorpion still crawling around among the sheets. 

“Did you hear that, Elsa?” Zulema purrs, “she wants me back…” 

  
  
  



	10. Two Steps Forward

The next morning Zulema wakes up with an unusually good feeling in her body. It almost never happens nowadays. It was as if somehow her body lost that ability in prison. 

Is this a date? No. But she is as excited as if it is and even though she isn’t the outdoor adventure kind of type, she actually looks forward to a day at the park. Well, it definitely isn’t the park in particular that has her so cheerful, but one can pretend for a change… 

Once she’s made her way from her little grove to the bus stop, hopped on the first bus and finally reached the beautiful building in the center of Madrid in which Macarena lives, she stops outside the gate to take a deep breath. Is she… nervous?

She had never done this with someone before. She knows it’s just a trip to the park. It’s probably nothing and it’s probably ridiculous to overthink it, she thinks, but she can’t help but feel a little nervous nonetheless. It makes her belly flutter to do something so _normal_ with someone who has _invited_ her to do it _with_ them. 

She makes her way up the stairs and without wasting any time, she knocks, because she knows that anxiety only grows until you rip the bandaid. The door opens.

Maca is wearing a black turtleneck, has her hair tied into a messy, low bun and has done her makeup just enough to look like the kind of mom that has time to look pretty everyday despite having a toddler. She smiles at her and _god_ does she look perfect. 

Zulema herself has shown up in a knitted sweater with skulls decorating her elbows, black jeans and sneakers. Perfect for the park, she thinks. 

“I’ve missed you.” Zulema muses and grins when Maca rolls her eyes,

“Oh cut it, it’s been _one_ night.” 

“Well, you throwing me headlong out the door felt like a life sentence,” The brunette shrugs, “I was starting to think I’d never see you again...” Maca snorts, thinking she is being ridiculous and bobs her head towards her daughter’s room, 

“Rosa is getting dressed,” she takes a step aside, “come wait inside.” Zulema walks through the doorway and Maca closes it behind her. Just as the brunette opens her mouth to break the silence, a thrilled three-year-old dressed in a blue, checkered, little dress comes running through the apartment. 

“Zulema!!” She exclaims happily and hugs her legs the way she always does when she greets her in the hallway. Maca watches the interaction with a smile on her face. Rosa _really_ adored Zulema and despite her not being able to tell exactly why, she is honestly just happy they get along as well as they do. 

”Everyone ready?” Maca asks as she claps her hands together and the other two nod. 

* * *

  
Once they arrive at the park, Zulema’s eyes grow wide at how packed with people it is. She isn’t used to being around this many people or in public places like this in general. It makes her feel claustrophobic and out of place. Perhaps it’s time to start adapting, but first she will need a cigarette... 

“Will you take Rosa to the playground over there?” Macarena asks, “I’m going to get us all something to drink from the supermarket across the street. It will be needed if it's going to be this sunny all day…” she says and points at a little store on the other side of the road. Zulema nods once, helps Rosa out of the car and takes her to the part of the park that’s crowded with other children. The closer they get, the more disgusted Zulema is by the noise of disobedient, untamed kids… She is pretty sure she’s not allowed to smoke right here but she isn’t sure if she can control the urge at this point. 

“ _Tía, tía_ come!” Rosa jumps and tries to pull her babysitter along with her to the swings but the older woman refuses,

“No way.” She scoffs.

“Please..!” the little blonde pleads but the brunette stands her ground,

”Do I look like a child to you?” Zulema asks, “Never.” 

So eventually Rosa takes off on her own, too eager to spend time trying to convince Zulema and the brunette takes a seat on the pavement along the path through the park since the benches are all occupied, hoping she goes unnoticed by the other women around her because the last thing she wants is to have a forced conversion with some perfect, privileged, coffee mother. She discreetly pulls the pack of cigarettes out of her jeans pocket and lights one behind her hand, trying to make cover from the wind. Of course, one of the moms starts interacting with her the moment she exhales the first cloud and Zulema expects her to complain about the smoke but instead she seems to be quite understanding,

“They completely drain you, but it’s worth it, _no?”_ She smiles squinting in the blazing sun. Zulema sighs and offers her a brief nod, silently agreeing while feeling uncomfortable knowing that she has no idea how to keep this conversation up if it continues. Though she certainly doesn’t expect the next thing that comes out of the other woman’s mouth, “Your daughter is adorable.”

Zulema snaps her head to her right and looks at her. She can swear that her heart stops for a second before she forces herself to smile. That’s the only response she manages to offer before the woman is approached by her five-year-old son. Not a single word comes out of her mouth and just like that, the conversation is over. 

_‘Your daughter’_

She was so wrong, yet it felt so right. She almost felt bad for not correcting her and that something within her allowed her to pretend, if only for a moment, that she still had a daughter of her own… 

Rosa has been swinging for a while when she decides she is tired of it and wants to try out the slide, when three older girls approach her. Rosa tries to avoid them but she’s smaller than them and they’re soon towering like a wall in front of her. 

”Who are you?” A girl merely a couple years older than her asks. Rosa’s cheeks turn rosy and her fingers begin to fiddle. 

”Losa…” she mumbles, ”Lo—” 

“You can’t say R?” The other girl laughs and another kid laughs with her. Rosa blushes even harder. She has always struggled with the R’s and she is old enough to be aware of it… 

“ **R** osa.” She eventually manages but then it’s too late. The other children are pointing and laughing at her and it catches Zulema’s attention from where she is seated. She gets up on her feet immediately,

“Hey!” She yells, brows meeting eyes. Even though the girls are pretty far away from her, she can see that Rosa is scared, “If you’re mean to her, _lo juro_ I will kick your little asses until you’re unable to use a swing for months!” 

The mothers behind her gasp loudly and start whispering but she couldn’t care less. She walks straight up to the girls, two of three run off as she approaches while the girl who talked to Rosa stays to prove that she isn’t scared of Zulema. She grabs Rosa around her little waist and throws the other girl a glare,

“What did you say to her you little _hija de puta?”_ She snaps but when the girl doesn’t reply she looks at Rosa, “what did she say to you?” 

Maca spins around at the sound of Zulema’s voice and dark tone that catches her attention from across the street. When she spots her seemingly yelling at a kid and an audience consisting of startled moms watching in horror, she quickly grabs the bottles of water she’s just bought and jogs over in an attempt to get things under control. 

_“Hey, hey now..!”_ She breathes as another mother steps through the crowd surrounding them. She starts lashing out at Zulema and the blonde notices immediately how the babysitter’s eyes darken, “what’s going on?” 

“Who are _you?”_ The mother to the other child snaps, looking at Macarena now.

“I’m Rosa’s mother.” She replies calmly. 

“Of course, I should have known a lesbian couple would cause trouble at a playground…” she says and it takes both Macarena and Zulema by surprise. The brunette even mouths an ‘oh’. Just as the blonde is about to reply, Zulema steps forward, gently pushing her aside in a protective manner,

“What is your fucking problem?” She growls, “Your little offspring here is an asshole and you blame that on _us?”_ Maca places a tender hand on her upper arm to calm her down but the older woman is consumed by anger, “Maybe you should give her a couple beatings and teach her some human decency before I do it to the both of you—“ 

_“Zulema!”_ Maca exclaims and pulls her back now. This will get ugly if she lets her go on. She knows her _that_ well. The mother chuckles,

“This poor child doesn't even have a father and you’re complaining about mine not knowing decency?” She gestures to Rosa and snorts, “they are children. At least mine knows things children _should_ know at their age.” 

Maca tugs Zulema’s jacket once more when she feels how she’s about to launch forward and most likely destroy the woman before them. Deep down, perhaps because of her, Zulema knows that it will only make it worse so she restrains herself. Instead, she shows her disapproval by simply shaking her head. Maca steps up and the stranger woman continues, 

“At least she has a real family.” 

To distract herself from acting on impulse, the brunette kneels down to grab Rosa’s face, only to put her fingers over her little ears and search for eye contact,

“Don’t listen to her,” she demands, trying to pull Rosa’s attention away from the angry woman who’s still arguing with her mother. Macarena is still so taken aback that she barely knows how to respond.

“We’re not… _together_ ,” she blinks, “and what does that have to do with anything anyway?” 

“People like you shouldn’t have children in the first place. There’s clearly a reason for it.” She spits and even though Macarena has never really fought for or even thought of defending people with a different sexual orientation than her simply because she’s too privileged to know about the seriousness of the issue, this really upsets her.

“I feel really bad for your daughter if that is what you teach her,” her eyes narrow, “but don’t you even dare say such spiteful, judgemental things around _mine_.” 

The other woman just huffs and Macarena throws her one last glare before shifting her focus to her daughter and the older woman on the ground. She crouches down to their level,

“Are you okay, honey?” She asks her child and she nods carefully, “what did the girl say to you?” 

“ _Nada…”_ Rosa mumbles and it makes her mother frown. She doesn’t dare to say, because she thinks it will cause more trouble and it tugs at her mothers heartstrings. 

“Baby,” she reaches out to stroke her rosy cheek, “it’s okay, they’re gone now, you can tell us.” 

Macarena using ‘us’ makes Zulema feel a little fuzzy inside; included, and she throws the blonde a brief glance that she doesn’t notice. 

“She say… I can’t say R.” She admits, actually managing to pronounce the letter this time. 

“Oh baby, that’s—“

“—That’s bullshit, you just said it perfectly!” Zulema interrupts and Maca doesn’t know whether to snap at her for her language or smile at how enthusiastically she encourages her… 

“Do you want to go back home?” She asks instead and Rosa sniffles and nods, “I’m gonna make your favorite chocolate banana pancakes..!” 

“Finally something yummy and not the healthy shit you always make...” Zulema sighs in relief.

“Oh but it _is!_ It’s both actually.” Maca smirks and takes her daughter's hand, “You’ll see.” 

They all start heading towards the car, eyes following them all the way out of the park. Once Rosa is buckled up and the two women have gotten into the front of the car, Maca drives them back home. 

Zulema is first to enter the kitchen and puts the bottle of water Macarena got her on the counter before she turns around to the sound of the blonde’s voice in the doorway,

“Open the cabinet above you,” She tells her and Zulema hesitates before she follows the order, “get me the cacao, flour, baking powder, bananas...” 

She keeps rattling off ingredients and the brunette gladly brings them out for her. When she’s got everything she needs, she places a bowl and whisk on the counter in front of the older woman. 

“Now,” she smiles, “mix them together, doesn’t really matter what order.” 

Zulema just stares at her all dumbfounded so the blonde helps her start. She grabs a measuring cup from one of the drawers below them and starts pouring almond milk into it. 

”Do you ever cook?” Maca cuckles. Zulema throws her an awkward glance. Had she ever done it in her life at all? Not what she can recall. She was too young to have an interest in cooking before she ended up in prison and since then she had had everything made and served to her, but she can’t say that to Macarena. 

”Not really…” she mumbles. 

“No wonder you think everything I make seems extreme,” she cocks a brow, “if you feed on ready meals and fast foods only.” 

Zulema wants to protest but she better shut up before she tells her too much.

“You do the flour,” she urges and the brunette's eyes land on the bag of white powder, ”three deciliters.” She grabs it and puts one of the cups in there only to scoop some of it up and drop it into the bowl. 

She glances up at Maca every now and then. She can’t help it, it just happens. She looks so happy making her vegan, healthy little pancakes and it makes her feel all warm in return. 

Once the batter is ready and the stove is hot, the younger woman starts pouring little puddles into the pan on top of it. She makes them perfect. Symmetrical and smooth. Zulema could never. 

“Food is ready, baby!” She yells, making sure it reaches Rosa in her room but Zulema can’t _not_ take the opportunity to comment on that,

“Oh I know, I made it, remember?” She smirks and the blonde cracks an involuntary smile as she takes a seat at the table. While they’re waiting for Rosa to join them, Zulema takes the opportunity to send a text message,

**Z: Wow, I never asked you to be my wingwoman but I’m not complaining…**

**R: Hands off or I’ll ruin you.**

Zulema chuckles.

“What?” Maca curiously eyes her and Zulema’s focus shifts from the screen to the woman across from her. 

“ _Nada,”_ she assures. 

Rosa comes sprinting into the kitchen, more ready than ever for her pancakes and Maca helps her get into her chair before she puts a plate in front of her. She drops a handful of berries and a splash of syrup on top of them and cuts them up for her. 

Zulema has just taken her first bite and is surprised how good they actually taste, despite Maca’s cryptic, healthy recipe. Rosa on the other hand, has clearly had this dish before and is digging in as soon as she’s given a spoon. She almost empties her plate faster than the adults, but just as she’s about to finish the last few crumbs, she accidentally tilts the plate and gets what’s left of the berries and syrup all over herself… 

“ _Ay díos, Rosita…”_ Maca whines frustratedly as she puts her cutlery aside and Zulema throws the child an eye. 

“Do you want me to—“ she starts but Maca shakes her head immediately. 

“No, it’s okay,” she says, “baby, you can go and get changed on your own, right?” 

Rosa nods carefully. 

“ _Bueno,”_ Maca smiles and helps her daughter down, “ _adelante.”_

Once Rosa’s little feet have taken off towards the bathroom, Maca’s focus shifts to Zulema. 

“So,” she shifts on her feet, “how was it?”

“This?” Zulema points at her plate, eyebrows raised, “surprisingly good.” 

“See?” Maca beams, “nutritious and healthy _can_ be good!” 

“You should teach me how to cook more often.” She smiles and there’s something about the look in her eyes that makes Macarena almost want to break the eye contact. It’s intimidating, but in a new, pleasant kind of way.

“Mama…” a little voice suddenly appears in the doorway to the kitchen before the blonde has a chance to reply. Both Maca and Zulema’s eyes dart over to the little girl, who’s now wearing pink pajamas and has her tiger plushie clutched in her arms, “why do I not have a dad?” 

The room goes silent and without turning her head, Zulema’s eyes veer to awkwardly observe Maca as she processes the question. Her lips part, but nothing comes out. She looks at Zulema who averts her curious eyes as if she got caught being insensitive. 

“Come here,” Maca suddenly urges while she walks back over to her chair and gestures for her daughter to come sit on her lap. Rosa toddles over to her, “We’ve talked about this, remember?” Maca says as she pulls the child up into her arms. Rosa just looks at her with her big, tired eyes. 

“Some people do and some don’t, and some don’t have a mom… Just like you don’t have a sister.” Maca tries as Rosa cuddles up in her embrace.

“You don’t need a dad,” Zulema suddenly speaks, “men are useless.” 

Maca throws her a glare and Zulema shrugs apologetically. _‘It’s true’_ she mouths but the blonde just shakes her head and shifts her focus back to Rosa. 

“Don’t listen to the other kids, my love…” Maca kisses her blonde little head, “why don’t you go to your room and put Mr Tiger to sleep so that we can say goodbye to Zulema before she leaves?” 

Rosa looks at her, then at her babysitter before she climbs down and takes off to her room and Maca gets up on her feet once again. 

“Thank you. For today…” Maca says, so sincerely that Zulema knows she not only means the day but the way she defended them all at the park, _even_ though she did it her way. She smiles in response, “I think Rosa listens to you… For better or worse.” They chuckle. 

“She’s gonna learn how to curse and shit once she grows older anyway,” Zulema shrugs, “don’t worry about it. If anything, you better get used to it, _especially_ if she listens to me.” 

She suddenly steps up closer. Another step. And then leans in so close that Macarena stops breathing for a second as she reaches around her,

“... water.” she clarifies when she’s so close the blonde can feel her breath on her lips, before she grabs the bottle behind her on the counter. Maca can’t help but let her eyes indiscreetly fall to the other woman’s mouth as she retires and she is well aware that Zulema notices. 

“Where did Rosa go, by the way..?” Maca asks to break the silence and save herself. 

“I’ll go check.” 

The older woman heads towards the three-year-old’s room. It’s oddly quiet and when she opens the door she finds the child, in bed, hugging her stuffed animal.

“Hey,” the brunette calls, “since when do you go to sleep voluntarily?” 

Rosa doesn’t reply.

“It’s only seven,” she exclaims dramatically, “are you okay? Do you have a fever?” The little girl finally turns around, tears have been trickling down her face. 

“Am I weird?” She asks and the older woman frowns.

“Why would you be?” 

“Cus I have no dad…” she cries. Zulema walks over and kneels down next to the bed, 

“Listen…” she lowers her voice to make sure Maca will not hear. Little does she know that she’s just appeared in the doorway and can both see and hear what’s going on, “You don’t have a dad because your mommy doesn’t want no shitty ass man. She only wants you. _You’re_ the love of her life.” Zulema says while continuously pointing at the little being before her, voice serious because she isn’t very good at this kid-voice thing other grown ups do when they talk to children. The little girl looks at the older woman for a moment with her big innocent eyes, before she tilts her head and speaks,

“Who is yous?” She asks.

Zulema’s eyes switch between hers. This kid… But it does make her think about it for a second. Who _is_ the love of her life? 

“You,” She finds herself saying before she smiles and pokes the tip of the child’s nose, “... too. your mommy will have to share, but don’t tell her.” Rosa beams and to Zulema’s surprise, she suddenly throws her small arms around her and hugs her tightly. It takes a moment before Zulema hugs her back. She has never gotten a hug quite like this in her entire life, what she can recall… It is a nice feeling. 

“ _Vale…_ I better go before your mom throws me out another time.” She says and the child eases her grip around her. Maca leaves the doorway to make sure she goes unnoticed and makes her way out to the hallway to wait for the brunette to come back out. 

“Okay, uh…” Zulema sighs, looking around for her shoes before stepping into them, “see you tomorrow, I guess?” 

Maca smiles, then she steps forward, leans in and places a chaste kiss on the older woman’s cheek. 

“See you tomorrow.”

Zulema stands frozen for a few seconds. The gesture was platonic, of course, but she cannot help but feel completely ecstatic about it. Macarena has started to trust her and it is starting to show. 

  
  



	11. One Step Back

When Zulema knocks on the door the next day, it takes a while before it’s answered. The handle moves a couple of times before the door finally opens and she is met by no other than little Rosa in the doorway. 

“ _Hola..!_ ” She greets almost shyly and Zulema can’t help but burst into a full smile at that and for the first time since she started coming here, she drops to her knees and instead of Rosa hugging her legs, she receives a proper hug around her neck as if the child is actually a little koala bear. 

Macarena watches the sweet interaction from afar, discreetly smiling from cheek to cheek. She is busted though, as Zulema’s eyes snap up to meet hers while still having Rosa’s clinging to her. 

“Are you in a hurry?” Zulema asks as the little girl releases her, abeling her to get back up on her feet. 

“No,” Maca shakes her head, “quite the opposite. I forgot everything I was going to talk to you about yesterday. I guess I got… distracted.” She doesn’t know what else to call it. 

Zulema smiles.

“So I figured we could talk now, instead.” She says and Zulema agrees with a simple nod. Rosa runs off to her room as her mother and babysitter disappears into the kitchen. Maca stops by the counter only to turn around and cross her arms. It rather quickly comes clear to the brunette that she’s done something wrong… 

“You’re good with her, you really are. She adores you,” Maca admits and Zulema beams, “but there are some things that I don’t want her to learn yet and some rules that I want you to take seriously.”

“You don’t think I take your rules seriously?” She teases and Maca doesn’t even sugarcoat her reply,

“No. You ridicule them,” She states and Zulema shrugs, tilting her head from side to side in an ‘you’re not wrong’ kind of manner. “but I have my reasons and I need you to respect that.” 

Their eyes meet.

“Sure… okay,” the brunette nods and her smug expression fades into a fairly reliable one, “I promise.” 

“Thank you.” 

Zulema pulls out a chair and takes a seat before she gestures for Macarena to begin. She seems attentive enough to the blonde, so she does,

“So,” she starts, “first off, bedtime at 8, _always_.” 

“I knew that one!” Zulema exclaims with fake excitement and the blonde throws her a glare before she keeps going,

“No sugar. I feel like I need to remind you of that…'' She mutters and the older woman bites her lip knowingly. She can’t help but still find last time a little funny, “No snacks before dinner and no climbing on furniture or running in the kitchen.” 

“No more than two hours of TV a day,” she continues, “...and no movies or shows that can traumatize her. I know you.” 

“Got it.” The brunette chuckles but Maca isn’t really sure she does… 

* * *

The moment Macarena has disappeared out the door, Zulema slouches into the couch and turns the TV on. A documentary catches her attention the moment the screen lights up. She knows exactly where this is from and what it’s about. She recognizes the yellow outfits all too well… Without realizing, she gets wrapped up and watches it for quite awhile with the child still next to her,

“Zulema?” 

The brunette turns her head to look at the little blonde. She seems concerned about something… 

_“Sí?”_

“Why people go prison..?” She asks. 

Zulema blinks. She isn’t really sure what to answer at first. It feels like a personal question, which it isn’t, because Rosa has no idea Zulema has been in prison but something tells her that the things she teaches her now will be what she remembers the day she finds out. 

“Well,” the older woman sighs, “you end up in prison when you’ve done something bad.” She says, trying to make her answer as simple as possible so that the three-year-old can have a chance to understand, but she soon realizes that she isn’t content with her own answer, “or _no—_ “ 

Rosa keeps listening attentively,

“You go to prison if you’ve done something that’s against the law.” She corrects.

“Wha’s a law?”

“It’s… like mommy’s house rules, but for the whole country. It’s a rule that you’re not allowed to break.” Zulema tries and Rosa actually seems to get it, “it’s not always wrong, or bad, to break the law but it will get you in trouble.” The child processes the information for a bit before she asks another question,

“Is prison bad?” 

“ _Oh_ yeah,” Zulema snorts before she can stop herself, “you don’t want to go there. Believe me. The food tastes worse than the healthiest dish your mom has ever made and you’re not allowed to wear neither cool clothes or makeup…” 

“ _Como así?”_ Rosa points at Zulema’s perfectly winged eyeliner and teal khol underlining her eyes. 

“ _Sí. Así.”_

Rosa suddenly touches the corner of her own eye, seemingly bothered,

“I no have makeup,” she realizes, “like prison!” She exclaims and Zulema laughs,

“You’re a _child,”_ she says, “makeup is for grownups.” 

“Why?” Rosa pouts, almost a little offended by the fact that it’s exclusively for adults. She doesn’t want to be like the prisoners…

“Well…” she cocks a brow. Well, why was it?

“I want like you!” Rosa jumps where she’s seated and Zulema throws her a mischievous look. 

“... Okay. Sure.” She nods, determined like never before. This could actually be fun, “stay here.” She gets out of the couch and finds the bathroom. 

It is a bad idea, she’s not stupid, but that’s exactly what makes it fun. She opens the cabinet above the sink to pry through Maca’s things in hopes of finding some kind of makeup. Whatever is useful really. Unfortunately, Maca has brought most of it with her on her little business trip but after a few minutes of rattling through the few things she has left behind, the brunette finds an eyeliner and it is all she needs. 

She comes back out to the child who is beaming as the older woman spins the eye pencil around her fingers victoriously. She takes a seat in front of Rosa on the couch, legs folded underneath her and pulls the lid off the pencil with a pop, exposing a rich ebony complexion.

“Close your eyes,” Zulema demands and Rosa follows her orders eagerly. Just as she places the tip atop the little girl’s lid, her eyes start to flutter, “ _be still.”_

Rosa squeezes them closed instead and the brunette sighs. 

“You can’t—“ she starts but realizes rather quickly that there’s no use… “ _vale,_ look at me.” She says and as soon as the bright eyes have snapped open, she draws a little wing in each outer corner of them. 

Ten minutes later, Zulema has managed to outline her little eyes perfectly and eagerly lifts her out of the couch. She carries her to the bathroom and holds her up in front of the mirror, proudly showing her the masterpiece she has created. 

“Do you like it??” She asks, almost more excited than Rosa herself and throws her a warm glance. The three-year-old nods gleefully.   
  


* * *

  
Macarena is walking out of the conference venue when she receives an unexpected message to her phone. The confusion on her face quickly turns into an eye roll as she reads the name on the screen. She opens the photo, despite being in a rush to get read for dinner with her colleagues… It’s a photo of Rosa, with _makeup_ on _._

**Z: [photo]**

Maca gasps before she starts typing away,

**M: Please, Zulema… Just because this wasn’t on my list of rules, it doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to put makeup on a three-year-old. Get her cleaned up and in bed. It’s 7:30 PM.**

**Z: “Please Macarena”, she’s feeling like a princess! A little eyeliner has never hurt anyone. Relax, mama.**

Macarena sighs and strangely enough, she considers her words for a while. Maybe she _is_ being too strict. She never has time to play with Rosa this way so Zulema is pretty much doing her a favor in all honesty. A little eyeliner has never hurt anyone... She’s right. 

**M: Just make sure to clean it all off before bedtime.**

**Z: Got it, boss.**

The younger woman simply shakes her head and sighs before shoving the phone down her jeans pocket. She needed a babysitter so that she could focus on her job and instead it feels like she’s working two jobs at the same time… 

An hour later, Macarena has been spammed with snapchats after Zulema has figured out her not so difficult username. Macarenaferreiro8. Rosa has gotten her face washed and is now playing with her dolls, which has Zulema bored to say the least so naturally, she starts annoying the blonde. 

The blonde picks the phone up for the eighth time within ten minutes while sitting in the lounge with a couple of her colleagues, waiting for the rest of everyone to gather before dinner. Three new snaps from ElfodelPutoInfierno.

**M: Stop snapchatting me..! I’m busy.**

The reply she receives is another photo. One of Zulema with a filter that’s making tears pour from her eyes. Maca sighs. She feels like she’s babysitting the babysitter… 

When everyone has finally arrived, it’s time for dinner and Maca to turn her notifications off.

Zulema notices that her snaps aren’t being opened. Bummed, but not surprised, she closes the app and throws the time a glance. Shit. It’s eight thirty, half an hour past Rosa’s bedtime… 

“Tired?” Zulema blurts out in the middle of Rosa's dialogues between the dolls. She glares at her, then shakes her head, “ _Qué pena_ , cuz it’s past your bedtime young lady…” 

“But I can no sleep!” She whines as the older woman lifts her off the floor. 

“You’ll have to try because otherwise your mommy is gonna fire me… _again.”_ She mutters as she puts the child down on the bed. 

“No she won’t,” Rosa says, and their eyes meet, “she likes you.” 

The brunette smiles. Something about Rosa saying that makes her feel all warm inside. She would know, _no?_

“Is that an attempt to bribe me?” Zulema’s eyes narrow, but the little girl just shakes her head.

“No, I go to sleep tía,” She assures, “so mama like you even more..!” The child beams as she pulls the blanket over herself and wiggles deeper into the sheets. Zulema lets out a genuine chuckle. 

“I think that’s the best plan you’ve ever had.” Zulema teases as she switches the lights off. 

“ _Noches..!”_ Rosa’s little voice calls out before she has closed the door.

“ _Buenas noches, genia.”_

Once the door is closed and the apartment is obnoxiously quiet again, the brunette decides to check on Maca… again. It can’t hurt, can it? But to her surprise, as she pulls her phone out to write her a message, there’s a new one from Maca herself. 

**M: Is she asleep?**

**Z: Dead.**

**M: I hope not…**

Maca chuckles as she responds. Zulema really had her own way of expressing herself… 

**Z: How’s your evening?**

**M: Just great. The meeting went well and the dinner was fabulous. It’s all so luxurious here. The room is huge..!**

**Z: And you? Did you dress up?**

**M: [photo]**

Zulema’s jaw drops. She wasn’t expecting her to send a visual reply. Maca had always been gorgeous in her eyes but to see her dressed up from top to toe and with makeup she only had time to do for special occasions like this was different. 

**Z: Joder Rubia. You’re tight fisted, keeping all that for yourself while starving me with puto rabbit food…**

**M: Zulema! Stop that.**

**Z: What?  
**

**M: Flirting with me.**

**Z: Does it make you uncomfortable because you don’t like it or does it make you uncomfortable because you’re in public and it turns you on?**

Zulema doesn’t even expect a reply, but she receives one almost immediately,

**M: You would like to know, wouldn’t you?**

She cocks a brow. Is she flirting back?

**Z: Oh I already know.**

**M: Is that so? Then why are you asking?**

Zulema shakes her head with an amused grin on her face. Let’s do this then… 

**Z: So how’s the bed? Empty without me?**

**M: You’re really bad at this.**

Maca chuckles as she presses send. She’s still not sure if Zulema is doing this just to be a pain in the ass or if she’s actually into her. She really cannot tell, because the brunette’s way of doing just _anything_ is always so oddly peculiar. 

**Z: You think it’s charming.**

**M: Far from.**

**Z:** **_Besos_ ** **.**

The blonde laughs and shakes her head before she puts the phone screen down on the bed. It’s getting late and she should take all the glam off, but she’s been busy texting Zulema for the last thirty minutes, something she never really planned on doing. It feels a little strange now when she thinks about it. She never thought they would become friends, especially not the moment she saw her for the first time. She thought she would be the _last_ person she’d ever befriend. 

Zulema is just about to leave the kitchen and make herself comfortable on the couch, her bed for the night, when the phone suddenly pings another time. 

**M: [photo]  
  
**

**M: The bed is very comfortable, by the way.**

Zulema almost drops the phone when she opens the image Macarena has sent. It’s clearly not a photo of the bed. It’s a photo of _her_ in the bed. A half naked Macarena Ferreiro in lacey, red lingerie. 

Her heart pounds ferociously at the sight and the fact that this is actually happening. Macarena really sent her a photo of herself in _nothing but underwear_. Good luck sleeping now, Zahir… 

**Z: You’re stunning.**

Maca’s heart flutters ever so slightly as she recieves Zulema’s blunt but honest reply. When Zulema is serious, she is _dead_ serious. There is never any in between, for better or worse. 

She has never sent anyone these kinds of pictures before and she doesn’t really know why she did it now, but she knew it would catch Zulema off guard and she wanted revenge for all those times the brunette had done the same to her. She was well aware that Zulema knew exactly how to intimidate her. She knows exactly which buttons to push to make her nervous or what to say to make her blush. It is about time that she gets to taste her own medicine. 

Zulema keeps staring at the photo. It isn’t even the fact that Macarena is half naked in it per se, but that she is actually flirting back and although it is probably supposed to be some kind of revenge, she thrives knowing the blonde is starting to loosen up a little.

Not so surprisingly, the fluttering in her stomach has turned into uncomfortable throbbing between her legs and the more she looks at the picture the more she wants to do with the woman in it. She simply cannot help but let her mind come up with all kinds of inappropriate wishes and she knows that it won’t stop unless she does something about it… 

She throws Maca’s bedroom a glance. She has suddenly gotten an idea, that’s effective, though by far the most stupid one among the options she’s got. But since when did she care to be sensible? 

The thing with Zulema is that she’s unfamiliar with handling emotions, whether it be love or sadness, and is used to taking the easy way out. She tends to act on impulse because she believes it is the quickest solution to any kinds of problems. Thinking consequently is not her strongest suit and tonight is not an exception.

**Z: Busy?**

She kicks herself the moment she presses send on her phone… but Macarena will never need to know, right?

**Hanbal: So** **_now_ ** **it suits you?**

**Z: The raincheck is expiring. Do you want to fuck or not?**

She definitely isn’t in the mood to listen to a grown man’s petty complaints right now. She couldn’t care less about this one fish-in-the-sea’s feelings. All she needs is for him to help her take the edge off because she is _desperate.  
  
_

**H: Where are you?**

  
Zulema sighs in relief and lets herself go ever so slightly to the image of the blonde still in her head, knowing she has just been granted the release it has caused her to crave… 


End file.
